The study analysed starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property and enforcing contracts. The study covered 25 cities - eight in Portugal, five in Slovakia, seven in the Czech Republic and five in Croatia (Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Varazdin, Rijeka).
The study shows that doing business is easiest in Varazdin and toughest in Split.
In Varazdin, it is easiest to deal with construction permits and getting electricity. Osijek, ranking second among the Croatian cities, is the most successful in registering property and enforcing contracts.
None of the five Croatian cities is excellent in all five areas. In Split, which ranked last, it is easiest to start a business. However, it ranked the worst in three areas.
Zagreb, ranking fourth, fared worst in starting a business and getting electricity. Rijeka ranked third and has the second best result in four areas, lagging behind only in enforcing contracts.
The biggest differences were recorded in dealing with construction permits, enforcing contracts and staring a business. In Varazdin, for example, getting a construction permit for a warehouse takes 112 days and costs 5.3% of the facility's value, which is half the time and a third of the cost in Split.
Economy Minister Darko Horvat said the study showed that Croatia had a lot of room for progress on the Doing Business 2018 rankings.
We are doing relatively poorly in three parametres. We start a business very slowly, it takes a long time to deal with construction permits, and getting electricity takes too long and is too expensive, he told reporters.
Asked about a reform of public administration and local government, Horvat said the number of counties should not be reduced but the number of municipalities should, notably those which were not financially self-sufficient.
Senior Manager of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group Rita Ramalho said there were possibilities to create tangible improvements by adopting good practices.
If Zagreb adopted the best practices noted in the five Croatian cities studied, Croatia would rank 40th among the 190 economies in terms of the ease to start a business, 11 places higher than in the Doing Business 2018 rankings.