Poland is the most business-friendly country in its region, an annual ‘Bureaucracy Index’ has found.
Poland outclassed its Central European peers, Czechia, Hungary, Georgia and Ukraine, as Slovakia took the title of the most burdensome country to run a business in 2024.
The Bureaucracy Index, developed by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies, aims to highlight the challenges small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face due to excessive regulations and bureaucratic obstacles.
It does so by identifying all the administrative tasks required by the state for two model businesses: a small industrial company and a small hotel.
According to the index, Ukraine had the highest bureaucratic burden for starting an industrial SME, requiring 64 hours.
In contrast, Poland excelled with the lowest time requirement of just 19 hours.
Starting a small hotel was consistently more bureaucratic across all countries due to stringent hygiene regulations, the document found.
Ukraine again ‘topped’ this category with 79 hours required as Poland came last with a score of 24 hours, around three times less than second-last Czechia.
Slovakia came second in both metrics, but its final index position was cemented by a poor performance in the ‘running a business category.’
The Bureaucracy Index, developed by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies, aims to highlight the challenges small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face due to excessive regulations and bureaucratic obstacles.
It does so by identifying all the administrative tasks required by the state for two model businesses: a small industrial company and a small hotel.
According to the index, Ukraine had the highest bureaucratic burden for starting an industrial SME, requiring 64 hours.
In contrast, Poland excelled with the lowest time requirement of just 19 hours.
Starting a small hotel was consistently more bureaucratic across all countries due to stringent hygiene regulations, the document found.
Ukraine again ‘topped’ this category with 79 hours required as Poland came last with a score of 24 hours, around three times less than second-last Czechia.
Slovakia came second in both metrics, but its final index position was cemented by a poor performance in the ‘running a business category.’
According to the institute, it takes around 270 hours of annual administrative work to run a small industrial business or a hotel in Slovakia, which translates to more than an hour of work per business day in a year.
The average time devoted to the same bureaucratic tasks is much lower in Poland, which again bottomed the ranking, at around 150 hours annually.
In the final score, Slovakia amassed 328 index points while Poland had 173.
While Poland’s good relative performance in the index might suggest the country is already an attractive destination for enterprises and investments, the government has recently launched a push to cut back burdensome regulation hampering business operations.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tasked Rafał Brzoska, the billionaire Polish owner of the parcel delivery company InPost, with drafting deregulatory proposals.
“We really need to prepare urgent deregulation acts that will free the economy, free your time and also your wallets from unnecessary burdens,” Tusk told businesspeople at the time of the announcement.
The average time devoted to the same bureaucratic tasks is much lower in Poland, which again bottomed the ranking, at around 150 hours annually.
In the final score, Slovakia amassed 328 index points while Poland had 173.
While Poland’s good relative performance in the index might suggest the country is already an attractive destination for enterprises and investments, the government has recently launched a push to cut back burdensome regulation hampering business operations.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tasked Rafał Brzoska, the billionaire Polish owner of the parcel delivery company InPost, with drafting deregulatory proposals.
“We really need to prepare urgent deregulation acts that will free the economy, free your time and also your wallets from unnecessary burdens,” Tusk told businesspeople at the time of the announcement.
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