Doing Business - Singapore vs France

This report is a comparative analysis of doing business in Singapore and France and provides information on the two countries across several criteria such as business environment, taxes, IP protection, openness to trade, bureaucracy and labour force.

Business Environment

• Singapore has always been ranked by the World Bank as one of the easiest countries in the world to start a business, while France is one of the most effective and compliant countries when it comes to trading across borders. The World Bank ranked Singapore in 2nd place and France in 32nd place in its 2018 Ease of Doing Business report. Below are some of the factors regarded by the World Bank that gives each country their overall ranking when it comes to the ease of doing business.

	Singapore	France
Starting a business	3	30
Protecting minority investors	7	38
Trading across borders	45	1
Enforcing contracts	1	12
Paying taxes	8	55

• And based on the 2019 Index of Economic Freedom report by The Heritage Foundation, Singapore ranks 2nd out of 180 countries with score improvements seen in trade freedom and government integrity. France, on the other hand, ranks as the 72nd country, with improvements seen in business freedom and fiscal health.
  
   

Taxes

• The corporate tax rate for Singapore and France are as follows:

  Singapore	France
  17%	33.3% (will be reduced to 28% by 2020)

IP Protection

• Countries that have in a strong intellectual property protection system in place have been proven to flourish the most. According to the World Economic Forum’s ‘2018 Global Competitiveness Report‘, Singapore has places 3rd on IP protection regime in the world and France places at 10th.

Global Competitiveness

• In the World Economic Forum’s ‘2018 Global Competitiveness Report’, Singapore is the second-most competitive economy among 144 economies and France ranked at #17. Below are some of the key indices that contributed to the ranking:

(Out of 140 countries)	Singapore	France
Most competitive economy	2	17
Intellectual property protection	3	10
Ease of finding skilled employees	9	28
Cost of starting a business	11	15
Burden of government regulation	1	107

Openness to Trade

• Trading globally is relatively easy in both Singapore and France as shown in the 'Global Enabling Trade Report 2016' report by the World Economic Forum. In the report, Singapore is ranked 1st and France is ranked 13th.

Bureaucracy

• Transparency International’s 'Corruptions Perception Index 2018' report viewed both Singapore and France relatively clean and with low levels of corruption. Singapore was ranked 3rd in the report and France was ranked 21st, out of 180 countries.

Labor Force

• The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Competitiveness Report measured the following labour-related factors for both Singapore and France: 

(Ranking based on 140 countries)	Singapore	France
Digital skills among population	6	63
Ease of finding skilled employees	9	28
Cooperation in labour-employee relations	2	99
Ease of hiring foreign labour	97	61
Labour tax rate	75	140

Country Rankings: Singapore and France

Year	Category	Singapore’s Rank	France’s Rank	Source
2018	Ease of Doing Business	2	32	World Bank, 2018 Ease of Doing Business Report
2019	World’s Freest Economy	2	71	Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom
2018	World’s Most Competitive Economy	2	17	World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report
2018	Country with Least Corruption Perception	3	21	Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index
2018	World’s Best Country for Business	8	21	Forbes’ Best Countries for Business Index
2016	Country Most Open to Trade	1	13	World Economic Forum, Global Enabling Trade Report