The World Bank Group invites the media to attend a briefing on Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium Enterprises, a joint World Bank-IFC report that analyzes how regulations apply to an economy’s local businesses.

As economies around the world implement changes to make regulations for domestic firms more business friendly, the annual Doing Business report measures 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 insolvency proceedings. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 185 economies.

DATE:                Tuesday, October 23, 2012                          

TIME:             Arrive at 13h45 for 14h00 start time

PLACE:         No. 4 Fricker Road, Illovo, Johannesburg      

Speakers:
·        David Bridgman, World Bank Group Senior Manager, Investment Climate, Africa
·        Oumar Seydi, IFC Director for East and Southern Africa
·        Tea Trumbic and Santiago Croci Downes, Co-Authors of Doing Business2013

To RSVP, please contact:

Nthateng Tsime at ntsime@ifc.org or calling 011 731 3040

To set up media interviews, please contact:

Samson Mulugeta at smulugeta1@ifc.org or calling either 011 731 3096 or 083 273 3922  

Accredited journalists can register with the World Bank Online Media Briefing Center (OMBC) at http://media.worldbank.org to access embargoed report material on October 22 after 10:00 a.m. Washington D.C. time. The embargo lifts at 00:01 GMT on October 23.

About the Doing Business report series
Doing Business analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and protecting investors. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economicoutcomes across economies. This year’s report marks the 10th edition of the global Doing Business report series. For more information about the Doing Business report series, please visit www.doingbusiness.org or join us on Facebook.