The report assesses 175 countries, 20 more than last year, according to the ease of doing business.
Last year Croatia ranked 118th according to the ease of doing business.
A country's ranking on the global list is calculated as its average mark in ten areas. Croatia is ranked the best, 28th, according to the criterion of contract enforcement. It ranks 58th according to the payment of taxes, 80th according to the closure of companies, and 92nd according to trade across border.
Croatia is 100th according to the ease of launching a business, 109th according to the registering of property, and 117th according to the ease of obtaining loans.
In the area of employment of workers, Croatia ranks 130th. It ranks 156th according to investor protection and 170th according to the issuance of permits.
The latest report by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation shows that eastern Europe has reformed more than any other region and the ten leading reformers are Georgia, Romania, Mexico, China, Peru, France, Croatia, Guatemala, Ghana and Tanzania.
Croatia, the second most successful regional reformer and seventh on the world scale, has reduced the time necessary to register real estate thanks to the introduction of electronic land registers and the transfer of more powers to court clerks.
The country has also introduced a single point for the registry of new companies. Public notaries have been enabled to conduct forced collection of undisputed claims, the report reads.
The report makes special note of recent government activities aimed at improving the business environment.
It states details about reforms aimed at improving Croatia's results over the next 1.5 years and its ranking on the global list.
This month the country is expected to launch the project "Regulatory Guillotine", which is aimed at annulling over the next nine months around 40 percent of unnecessary laws and regulations obstructing investment and economic development.
The report also underlines the Internet website Hitro.hr, access to application forms at Hitro.hr stands across the country, the possibility of submitting an application for registering in the court register via the Internet, and the reduction of the registration time to 15 days. Some 5,000 new companies have been registered since the launch of the one-stop-shop project.
The measures taken last year to improve the business climate also include a credit register, which is now widely used.