Nicosia, Jan 3 -- The World Bank''s report Doing Business in the Arab World 2009 says the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the easiest country to do business in the Middle East. The report ranked UAE in the 14th place globally in its assessment of 181 countries.

"Economies that have efficient customs, good transport networks and fewer document requirements, making compliance with export and import procedures faster and cheaper, are more competitive globally," the report said.

Closely behind at the 16th place is Saudi Arabia. Bahrain was the third easiest country to trade with in the region at the 21st position and Egypt came next at 24.

For the ranking three basic elements are taken into account: The number of documents required for export and import, time required for export and import and cost to export and import. UAE requires five documents for export and seven for import, just 10 days for import and export, while the cost per container is 587 dollars for import and 618 dollars for export.

For a third time, Egypt is one of the top 10 economies that reformed their business regulations. Egypt, which was the world's top reformer of business regulations last year, continued to lead, with improvements in six of the 10 areas the report covers.

Egypt advanced 11 places in the global rankings on the ease of doing business. The region's other leaders in reforming regulations are Saudi Arabia and Tunisia; each made it easier to do business in four areas. (ANI)