Published by the World Bank every year, Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulation. Doing Business 2017 presents the data for the labour market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labour market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business.

Summary

• Singapore is the easiest ASEAN country for doing business, ranking second in the world.
• Malaysia and Thailand are also in the top 50 worldwide, with Thailand, in particular, seeing significant improvements.
• Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines are all within the top 100 (out of 190).
• Myanmar is rated as the most difficult ASEAN market to enter but is still accessible with help from UK government.

Looking for the most recent rankings and full country reports? You can find the 2018 reports here.