A statement of the ministry on Thursday said the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) report, which identified the Kingdom as the most favorable place to do business in the Arab world, Middle East and North Africa, proves the effectiveness of the economic reforms implemented by the Kingdom to develop an ideal environment for domestic and international investments.

“It is the result of the translation of the Kingdom’s comprehensive economic vision to real growth with the help of economic that the country it has been adopting since many years,” said the statement.

“Saudi Arabia, the region’s highest-ranking economy on the overall ease of doing business (with a global ranking of 11 among 183 economies), focused on four areas of business regulation in the past year,” said a report by the International Finance Corporation, a wing of the World Bank.

While Saudi Arabia remained the best country for conducting business in the GCC, Oman retained its position at 57. All other Gulf states fell in the rankings in the latest report.

While the UAE’s ranking dropped to 40 from 37 in 2009, Bahrain was downgraded from 25 to 28. However, Qatar emerged as the biggest loser among the GCC states, being downgraded to 50 from 39 last year. Kuwait was moved to 74, down from 69.

India is listed among the 40 most-improved economies since 2005 after enhancing its business regulations, according to the report.

India, which implemented 18 business regulation reforms in seven areas in past five years, created more opportunities for domestic firms. Many of the reforms focused on technology — implementing electronic business registration, electronic filing for taxes, an electronic collateral registry, and online submission of customs forms and payments, the report said.

Other economies in South Asia are also improving regulations with fast, transparent, electronic systems, said the paper, titled “Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs,” the eighth in a series of annual reports published by the IFC.

Pakistan, the region’s highest-ranking economy on the regulatory ease of doing business (with a global ranking of 83 among 183 economies), reduced the time for exporting by improving electronic communication between the Karachi Port authorities and private terminals in the past year.

Similarly, Bangladesh made business start-up easier by enhancing the country’s online-registration system, said the report that ranked 183 economies on key aspects of business regulation for domestic firms.

“New technology underpins regulatory best practice around the world,” said Dahlia Khalifa, an author of the report. “Technology makes compliance easier, less costly and more transparent.”

Globally, Singapore continued to lead in the ease of doing business for the fifth year running, followed by Hong Kong, China, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

In the past year, governments in 117 economies worldwide carried out 216 business regulation reforms aimed at making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights, and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures.

Singapore also led the world in investor protection ahead of New Zealand and Hong Kong, according to the report’scriteria that included dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders and closing a business.

China was ranked 79th, although it, along with Vietnam and Timor Leste were the three most improved countries over the past five years.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remained the most difficult places to conduct business, although three African countries were among this year’s top 10 most improved nations — Rwanda, Cape Verde and Zambia.

On the contrary, Chad stood at the bottom of the list, with the Central African Republic second bottom and Burundi third last, according to the report.

Another IFC report revealed that in past five years, about 85 percent of the world’s economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation.

The report said doing business remained easiest in the high-income economies of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Developing economies remained increasingly active, with 66 percent reformed business regulations in 2009, up from 34 percent six years earlier, added the report.

— With input from Walid Mazi