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UAE best for business in Mena

The UAE has jumped seven positions to rank as the top Middle East North African country and 33rd out of 139 global nations on Forbes' latest annual list of the best countries for business in 2017 led by Sweden.
Morocco and Oman rank as the second and third Mena economies and are globally placed at 51st and 52nd. Qatar ranks 54, Bahrain 60, Turkey 62, Jordan 71, Saudi Arabia 80 and Kuwait 84. Qatar and UAE finished tied for first on taxes with Chad at the bottom of the 139 countries in the final ranking.
Forbes projects the UAE economic growth at four per cent and a GDP per capita of $40,400 (Dh148,373). Luxembourg tops as the country with highest GDP per capita at $101,400, followed by Switzerland at $80,200. Sweden boasts a per capita GDP of $50,350.
Rounding out the top five are Hong Kong, Ireland and the UK.
India has improved its ranking to 85th position globally as the best country to do business in 2017 from the 97th position a year ago, according to Forbes which has lashed out against the country's demonetisation move by describing it as "an unprecedented act that is not only damaging its economy and threatening destitution to countless millions of its already poor citizens but also breathtaking in its immorality."
Sweden moves up four spots to the top of the charts for the first time (Sweden was ranked No. 17 in 2006). Over the past two decades the country has undergone a transformation built on deregulation and budget self-restraint with cuts to Sweden's welfare state, Forbes said. The country's tax burden rank in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business has improved 11 spots during the time. Sweden's $493 billion economy grew 4.2 per cent last year with only Ireland and Luxembourg faring better among countries that placed in the top 25 in our ranking.
This year is no different as the US falls one spot to 23rd place, continuing a decade-long slide from its No. 1 ranking in 2006. Falling scores on trade and monetary freedom, along with rising levels of red tape and bureaucracy are behind the decline for the world's largest economy.
Forbes has used the World Bank's Doing Business report to grade countries' taxes, investor protection and red tape/bureaucracy.
The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom provided the basis for Forbes ratings on trade freedom and monetary freedom. Singapore, Hong Kong and Switzerland tied on top for trade freedom with Yemen ranked last. Hungary ranked best for monetary freedom. Personal freedom ratings came from Freedom House's Freedom in the World report, which deemed more than two dozen nations to be the "most free" and Saudi Arabia to have the lowest rating.
Ratings on technology and innovation were based on the World Economic Forum's annual Global Competitiveness Report. Switzerland was the leaders in both categories, with Chad and Yemen bringing up the rear in those categories.
This is the 11th straight year Forbes has gauged the world's economies to measure which are the most inviting for capital investment. Forbes graded 139 countries on 11 factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance. The data is based on published reports from Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, World Bank Group and World Economic Forum.
New Zealand takes second place in this edition of Forbes' Best Countries for Business.
Japan, the third-biggest economy in the world at $4.1 trillion, had one of the biggest drops in the rankings, down 13 spots to No. 36, due to declining scores for investor protection and monetary freedom.
Central African country Chad ranks last for the second straight year. The landlocked nation falls in the bottom five in four of our 11 metrics, including tax burden, technological readiness, trade freedom and red tape.
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com