Iraq among four countries awarded for online firm ease

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Armenia, Iraq, Lesotho, and Montenegro on Wednesday received Global Enterprise Registration (GER.co) awards for the quality of online information portals that provide detailed, up-to-date information on creating a business, during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum in Geneva.

Armenia, Iraq, Lesotho, and Montenegro are among 134 countries listed on GER.co that have information portals describing the business creation process step-by-step, from the user’s point of view, showing all the necessary contacts, forms, costs, and other requirements for each step, according to UNCTAD’s statement.

Launched in October 2014, the GER.co portal is a global index of online business information and registration sites developed by UNCTAD, in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Network and the United States Department of State.

GER.co’s primary objective is to enable entrepreneurs worldwide to comply with laws and regulations and build thriving formal businesses.

“They gained a maximum rating on GER.co by making their business creation process entirely transparent,” the statement reads.

During the award ceremony, UNCTAD’s director of investment and enterprise, James Zhan, said: “GER’s objective is not to give countries good or bad marks but to promote the exchange of good practices and offer criteria to assess the quality of business registration websites.”

To meet this goal, Zhan announced he was launching a campaign to invite all countries in the world to put their business creation requirements online by 2020 and to list them on GER.co.

During the forum, judges stated Iraq was recognized for the government’s efforts to clarify and publish business registration procedures on the Iraq eRegulations portal.

“In the reconstruction phase currently underway in Iraq, swift and transparent administrative procedures are essential to boost entrepreneurship and attract foreign investment,” the judges added.

GER.co lists and rates information portals and single windows. Information portals describe the business creation process with single windows enabling online business registration.

It also enables investors and entrepreneurs to obtain information on business creation procedures in any country in the world and register their businesses online.

The complicated, multiple steps and processes involved in carrying out legitimate business in any given country are then simplified and transparent, helping micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises that do not always have the means to tackle these complex procedures.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany