Innovative Solutions for Business Entry Reforms : A Global Analysis

Abstract

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ; This report shows how business registers employ information and communication technology (ICT) to perform their functions more efficiently while at the same time providing businesses with more user-friendly services. Particular attention is paid to achieving innovative solutions, that is, solutions using ICT as a catalyst for re-engineering the registration process to improve users experiences and to provide useful services and high-quality information for both the private and the public sectors. In addition, this analysis demonstrates that business registers play an increasingly important part in e-Government solutions. Aimed at integrating services, e-Government solutions build on information sharing. This underscores the importance of business registers as master data sources. This analysis is based on data from the following sources: a 2011 survey of 41 business registers conducted by the Bronnoysund register centre in cooperation with the World Bank Group; case studies undertaken in 2011 in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Italy, Vietnam, and Norway; the 2011 World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) doing business report; the 2011 World Bank Group study of ICT solutions in 34 company registers; the 2011 European commerce registers forum report; and the International Council On Archives (CIA) factbook.