The World Bank released today report on the "Ease of Doing Business for the year 2016", which ranked the UAE first among Arab countries for the third year in a row, ahead of all countries in the region included in this year's report.

The World Bank report, which measures the performance of 189 states in facilitating doing business for investors, says the UAE has advanced one step in the ranking of last year to occupy 31st rank globally this year.

The UAE came among the first five countries in the world regarding non-payment of taxes, which does not affect business, process of construction permits and electricity delivery.

 At the regional level, the UAE topped the countries of the region and within 10 countries of the world in the number of documented improvements by the World Bank during one year in the delivery of electricity, processing of the construction permits, protecting investors and enforcement of contracts.

The UAE was ranked first regionally in both dealing with the construction permits, the delivery of electricity, the protection of small investors and registering property and the non-payment of taxes, which does not affect business, processing construction permits and the enforcement of contracts.

The report also praised the four improvements carried out by the UAE.

The Ease of Doing Business report 2016 is one of the most periodic reports issued by the World Bank Group. This report is version 13 in a series of annual reports that measure the procedures and legislation which promote the trade activity and investment in the states.

It offers quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies.

The report also measures all actions of improvements and obstacles affecting 10 areas in business.

On this occasion, Reem bint Ibrahim Al-Hashemi, Minister of State and Chairperson of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, said in a statement today that the ease of doing business report includes a set of the most important global indicators that reflect the extent of interest and the interest of the Government of the United Arab Emirates towards local and international investors.

She noted that the report documents all the tremendous efforts made by the local and federal government agencies in order to facilitate and develop procedures and legislation for the sake of investors to support and develop their businesses to acquire competitiveness access to global entrepreneurship leadership.

Al Hashimi commended the UAE leadership and people on this important achievement, citing efforts of all local and federal government agencies that contributed to the planning and activation of procedural improvements for this year, and the positive impacts on improving the performance of the state in the report.

For his part, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, stressed the importance of investors and entrepreneurs, who are a growing category and one of the main pillars of effective economic planning. He added that the developed countries take into account the Ease of Doing Business when drawing the general development policies.

He noted that the experiments and studies have proven beyond doubt the existence of a close relationship between attractive countries for investors, and strength and durability of the economic structure of those countries. "Therefore, we have to pursue in the UAE the latest practices and necessary global methodologies to overcome the obstacles that face investors and entrepreneurs, as this would enhance the economic sector and ensure improvement in the Global Competitiveness Reports to achieve the goals of the UAE Vision 2021."