Jordan was ranked 103 out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s recently released Doing Business 2018 report which lists countries around the world based on their ease of doing business.

Not surprisingly, the Gulf states performed best out of the Middle East countries, with the UAE, ranked 21 globally, and Bahrain, 66, topping the list.

But while the UAE is the easiest to do business in overall, Oman was ranked as the region’s best place to start a business.

Jordan is positioned in the middle of the Arab world table, ranking 9 out of 18, but has made some important gains in its ease of doing business.

The report highlighted Jordan’s new credit bureau which has improved access to credit information.

But it still takes an average of 12.5 days to start a new business in Jordan compared to global leader New Zealand where it only takes 0.5 days.