Here are the 23 countries where you can register a business in under five days

Barni1 via Pixabay

Do you have an internet startup and want to open in a hurry? This year’s Doing Business report, released earlier this week lists 23 countries where it’s possible to open a business in less than a day.

New Zealand tops the list again — it takes just one day to open a business there. Next up are Canada and the small former Soviet republic, Georgia — where it takes just two days to open a business.

Jamaica may be famed for its laid back lifestyle, but not when it comes to registering a business — the country does it in just three days, the same time it takes to register a business in Australia. Or try Rwanda or its neighbour Burundi — it takes just four days to complete the paper work there.

In South Africa it takes on average 45 days to open and register a business.

The long time it takes (at least it’s not 80 days as in Brazil) is mostly down to how long it takes to register with the Department of Labour for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Workmen’s Compensation Fund — according to the World Bank.

Jamaica may be famed for its laid back lifestyle, but not when it comes to registering a business — the country does it in just three days

If you don’t plan on taking on employees right away registration can be completed online with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in a number of days.

In the below list six countries are former Soviet states, five are former Commonwealth states (including the UK). The list contains 14 European countries, two African and three Asian countries, two from Australasia, one from North America and one from the Caribbean.

So where is the US? It takes six days to register a business there (5.6 days according to the World Bank, but we rounded it off for you).

Here are the 23 countries where you can register a business in five or fewer days:

New Zealand – one day

Canada – two days

Georgia – two days

Jamaica – three days

Australia – three days

The Netherlands – four days

Denmark – four days

Norway – four days

Korea – four days

Estonia – four days

Rwanda – four days

France – four days

Belgium – four days

Burundi – four days

Armenia – five days

Azerbaijan – five days

Ireland – five days

Thailand – five days

Portugal – five days

Belarus – five days

Moldova – five days

UK – five days

Uzebekistan – five days

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