Macedonia ranked 11^th in the 2018 edition of the World Bank's Doing Business Report, falling by one place from a year ago.

However, Macedonia remained best ranked among the Western Balkans countries, far ahead of the runner-up Kosovo which was in 40^th position, and Montenegro (42^nd). Across the wider CEE/CIS region, Macedonia was second only to Georgia. 

The report assesses the ease of doing business across 190 economies worldwide. Doing Business 2018 is the 15^th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.

Macedonia’s overall DTF (distance to frontier) score was 81.18 compared in the latest report, compared with the best ranked New Zealand with a score of 86.55.

Macedonia was better ranked than last year only in areas of getting credit, protecting investors, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

The new government led by Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), which came to power at the end of May, pledged to improve the business climate in the country and to offer help to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as the main drivers of the economy.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev recently said that the government will implement a plan that will be guided by six principles. It will be based on freeing the private sector from political influence and clientelism, transparency of policies and their implementation, neutrality, non-discrimination and equal treatment of domestic and foreign investors, good coordination with the business sector, as well as efficient and effective policymaking, including permanent monitoring of the process.

The plan should help the country to increase foreign and local investments, cut the jobless rate, raise productivity and the competitiveness of the private sector, increase exports as well as achieve higher economic growth.