BEIRUT: The World Bank/International Finance Corporation Doing Business 2012 report ranked Lebanon in 104th place among 183 countries worldwide and 11th among 19 Arab countries in terms of ease of doing business.

Lebanon came in 103rd place globally and in 10th place regionally in 2011 in the rankings, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. Lebanon also ranked in 32nd place among 44 Upper-Middle Income Countries in the 2012 survey.

A firm in Lebanon requires 37 procedures and 721 days to enforce commercial contracts, compared to an average of 44.7 procedures and 659.1 days in the Arab region and to 31.4 procedures and 518 days in OECD countries.

Further, enforcing a contract in Lebanon costs 30.8 percent of the claim compared to 23.8 percent in the region and 19.7 percent in OECD markets.

The index is a composite of 10 sub-indices of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, expansion, operations and insolvency. Also, data are presented for regulations on employing workers.

Globally, Lebanon came ahead of Pakistan, Marshall Islands and Nepal and ranked behind Seychelles, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea, while it ranked ahead of Dominican Republic and Argentina and behind Seychelles and Saint Kitts & Nevis among UMICs.

Regionally, Lebanon came ahead of Qatar and Sudan and behind Jordan and Morocco.