世行2017年營商環境報告凸顯女性創業歧視

World Bank report highlights female discrimination

The World Bank has since 2002 documented bureaucratic barriers to business around the world from licensing requirements to predatory tax regimes.

自2002年以來世界銀行(World Bank)記錄了全球種種官僚商業壁壘，比如許可證要求和掠奪性稅收制度。

But in its latest Doing Business report, the bank offers what for many countries — and half their population — is an important question: why is it so much harder for women to do business than men?

但在世行最新《營商環境報告》(Doing Business)中，該行提出了一個對許多國家——以及它們的半數國民——而言重要的問題：為什麼女人做生意比男人難得多？

For the first time, economists at the World Bank this year sought to measure the regulatory environment for female entrepreneurs in starting a business, property rights and enforcing contracts. Those findings were used as part of the ranking of the 190 countries covered by the report.

世行經濟學家今年首次嘗試衡量女性創業者在開辦企業、財產權和執行合同方面面臨的監管環境。衡量結果被用作《2017年營商環境報告》所覆蓋190個國家的部分排名依據。

「In 155 economies women do not have the same legal rights as men, much less the supporting environment that is vital to promote entrepreneurship,」 said Paul Romer, the World Bank』s new chief economist.

世行新任首席經濟學家保羅?羅默(Paul Romer)表示：「在155個經濟體里女性不具有與男子相同的法律權利，更不用說對促進創業至關重要的支持環境。」

The growing consensus among economists and policymakers is those sorts of obstacles matter economically.

經濟學家和政策制定者越來越達成共識，認為這些障礙對經濟有很大影響。

According to the World Bank, about a third of small and medium-size enterprises in emerging markets have at least one female owner. But their average growth rate is significantly lower than male-owned businesses because they lack ready access to credit and face other forms of discrimination.

據世行報告，新興市場約三分之一的中小企業至少擁有一位女所有者，但這些企業的平均增長率明顯低於男性所有的企業，因為它們難以獲得信貸，且面臨其他形式歧視。

In the Middle East and north Africa the gender gap in entrepreneurship results in an income loss of almost 30 per cent, according to the bank, with even Europe seeing a 10 per cent loss in income.

根據世行研究，創業的這種性別差距在中東和北非造成近30%的收入損失，就連歐洲也因此有10%的收入損失。

The bank』s researchers found 23 economies where women faced a different process to set up a limited liability company, 16 where women did not have the same property rights as men and 17 where if a woman did not have the same legal standing as a man in court.

世行研究人員發現有23個經濟體的女性在成立有限責任公司時會面臨不同程序，有16個經濟體的女性不具備與男性同樣的財產權，有17個經濟體的女性在法庭上不享有與男性同等的法律地位。

They found the most restrictive laws in the Middle East and Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, married women need their husband』s permission to set up a business. In Benin, women need to present a marriage certificate to get the identification documents needed to eventually register a business.

他們發現，中東和非洲實施的法律最具限制性。例如，在剛果民主共和國，已婚女性需要丈夫許可才能創業。在貝南，女性需要提供結婚證明才能獲得最終註冊企業所需的身份證件。

The World Bank also collected data on whether countries had requirements for women to serve on corporate boards and found nine economies where that was the case including France, Germany, Italy, Norway and India. But the bank decided not to include laws requiring female board members as part of its scoring because the evidence on the value of such laws remains mixed.

世行還收集了要求公司董事會有女性任職的國家的數據，發現包括法國、德國、義大利、挪威、印度在內的9個經濟體有此類要求。但世行決定不將要求有女性董事會成員的法律規定計入得分，因為關於此類法律的價值的證據仍不充分。

According to the bank, for the first time in a decade the world』s best place to do business was somewhere other than Singapore, with New Zealand topping the rankings and the Asian island state falling to second place. Somalia, which was included for the first time this year, was last among the 190 economies ranked.

根據世行的數據，全球最佳經商之地十年來首次易主，紐西蘭升至榜首，亞洲島國新加坡排名降至第二。今年首次被納入排名的索馬利亞在190個經濟體中排名墊底。

This year』s rankings also include disappointing news for other big economies.

今年的排名中其他大型經濟體也令人失望。

India, where the government of Mahendra Modi has put its Doing Business ranking at the heart of reform efforts, did not budge in the rankings, coming in 130th and improving its score only marginally.

雖然納倫德拉?莫迪(Narendra Modi)政府已把本國的營商環境排名放在改革努力的核心位置，但印度的表現並未出現太大起色，排在第130名，僅有略微提升。

China, which has sought to eliminate the rankings in the past, moved up six places to 78th place but remained below developing economies such as Azerbaijan, Jamaica and Mongolia.

曾希望世行刪除排名的，上升了6位，至第78名，但仍低於亞塞拜然、牙買加、蒙古等發展中經濟體。

Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of the World Bank』s Global Indicators Group, said researchers this year had documented a record 283 reforms in 137 of the 190 countries covered. Encouragingly, he said, 80 of those reforms had come in countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

世行旗下全球指標小組(Global Indicators Group)負責人奧古斯托?洛佩斯-克拉羅斯(Augusto Lopez-Claros)稱，研究人員今年記錄了排名包括的190個國家中137個國家創紀錄的283項改革。他說，令人鼓舞的是，其中80項改革發生在撒哈拉以南的非洲國家。