Comparison of Current Business Environment in the Czech Republic and Poland

The paper assesses the current business conditions that the World Bank assesses annually. The data obtained from this database are further analyzed in order to gain insight into similarities and differences of the business environment in selected economies with similar territorial, cultural, historical and political background, but completely different populations and sizes. Czech and Polish economies are evaluated according to 10 criteria selected from a very wide range of areas that clearly contribute to the quality of the business environment. The selection and subsequent evaluation of individual criteria are subject to highly qualified processing by experts in each of the 190 countries that are annually involved in the project. This contribution uses data from the November report called Doing Business 2019, Training for Reform. The data were assessed for the period between June 2017 and May 2018. The analysis shows that the Czech Republic and Poland have very similar business conditions and almost identical placements in the ranking of surveyed countries. A more detailed assessment of individual sub-areas shows a significant difference in dealing with construction permits for business purposes and in the processes necessary for obtaining a permanent connection to the electricity grid for business purposes and differences in legal enforcement of valid contracts.