Armenia occupies the 82nd place by economic competition indices among 125 countries of the world, one position down as compared to 2005. (Source: Prime Business News)

This seems like great news for a country where 70% of people think that the level of corruption is totally unacceptable, where people’s rights for private property are violated on a daily basis and the “Law on Appropriation of Private Property for the needs of the Public and the State” fails to pass in the Parliament (after two successive mock-votes), because the deputies think it should be called ”Law on Confiscating Private Property for the needs of the Mob and the Criminal Groupings” (excuse my euphemistic translation). So you see - we got a grand rating after all, didn’t we?

The truth is a comparative value. Let’s look at our neighbors to see how bad are we? According to information, published by the World Economic Forum, Azerbaijan took the 64th place (two positions down as compared to 2005), Georgia – the 82nd place (improved compared to 2005). Turkey improved its indices by 12 positions and ended up on the 59th place this year, while Russia occupied the 62nd place (nine positions down as compared to 2005).

The official website of the organization informs that during determination of the rating experts took into consideration the level of property right protection, corruption, independence of legal system, interference of government. The best indices were registered in Switzerland (the 1st place), Finland (2nd place), Sweden (3rd place), Denmark (4th place), Singapore (5th place), the USA (6th place), Japan (7th place), Germany (8th place), the Netherlands (9th place) and the UK (10th place). The lowest indices were registered in Angola (125th place), Burundi (124th place) and Chad (123rd place).

Now - who’s for starting a business in Armenia?