China’s global ranking of business environment jumped to 31st from last year’s 46th in Doing Business 2020, released by the World Bank in October 2019.

Doing Business is a World Bank Group flagship publication, documenting changes in regulatory measures in 12 areas of business activity in 190 economies to analyze whether they encourage efficiency and support freedom to do business.

According to the report, China has been one of the 10 economies with the most notable improvement in terms of business environment for two consecutive years.

The report outlines eight of China’s business reforms and three of them, namely enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and protecting minority investors, involved the efforts of the country’s Supreme People’s Court, which reflects the responsibilities and contributions of China’s courts to cultivating the economy as one of top-favorable business environments worldwide.

China’s ranking is fifth in terms of enforcing contracts among 190 economies evaluated by the report. The indicator measures the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court, and the quality of judicial processes index, evaluating whether each economy has adopted a series of good practices that promote quality and efficiency in the court system. Among which, the index of judicial processes quality, showing an economy’s judicial institution and work mechanism, is 16.5 out of a possible full score of 18.

During the report evaluation period from May 2018 to May 2019, the SPC improved regulations on doing business and specified the times, procedures and time intervals of adjournments and postponement of hearings to enhance trial efficiency. In addition, the SPC introduced new regulations to promote judicial disclosure and smooth connection between case filing, hearing and enforcement and made sure that they operated at a high efficiency so as to guarantee the timely realization of legitimate rights and interests.

According to the report, Chinese entrepreneurs on average take 469 days to resolve commercial disputes and spend 16.2 percent of their compensation in costs, which is better than the average situation of East Asia and the Pacific. The World Bank said that reforms have made China one of the most efficient economies when it comes to enforcing contracts.

The report also shows that China’s ranking is 51st in terms of the indicator of resolving insolvency. That indicator evaluates market exit mechanisms and the quality and the efficiency of market rescue. China’s position was 10 places higher compared to that of last year. To strengthen the trial and execution of insolvency and response in answer to the World Bank’s concern over the issue, the SPC introduced regulations on the area in 2019 giving full play to the impact of bankruptcy trials to optimize the business environment and deepen supply-side structural reform. In addition, three bankruptcy courts were set up in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai in 2019.