China is among the top 10 performers in regulatory reforms in business environment this year, as it was last year, the International Finance Corp (IFC) of the World Bank Group said yesterday.

China was 9th among 178 economies because it introduced three out of the 10 sets of IFC indicator reforms, according to an IFC report titled "Doing Business 2008" that was released yesterday.

China passed its new bankruptcy law in 2006, and the property law this spring. The former better protects creditors' interest by giving them priority to the proceeds from collateral, while the latter puts private property rights on an equal footing with State property rights.

The property law has also expanded the range of assets that can be used as collateral and includes inventory, accounts receivable and future assets. This means it will be easier for enterprises to get loans and expand.

"In market economies, inventory and accounts receivable are very common pledges to banks for credit," principal banking specialist of IFC in China Michael Ipson said at a press conference in Beijing.

Those changes show that "China continues to build better conditions for starting up and operating businesses".

The country has introduced reforms in "dealing with licenses", "getting credit" and "closing a business", the report said.

"While there's room for improvement, China is making progress in improving business conditions," Ipson said.

China performed worst in the category of "dealing with licenses", ranking 175th among the 178 economies. Which means enterprises have to go through complicated procedures to get a license.

But it has been a good performer in contract enforcement, ranking 20th, report co-author Justin Yap said. That means China has progressed in settling contract enforcement cases, IFC investment official Wang Lihong said.

"Construction became easier, with electronic processing of building permits reducing delays by two weeks," the report SAID.

Egypt ranked first in terms of regulatory reforms by performing well in five of the ten IFC indicators.

But Singapore was the best when it came to overall ease of doing business. New Zealand, the US and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region followed Singapore.

China was 83rd, nine spots higher than last year, in the category. It was 108th in 2005.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the leading reformers among regions, with three countries from the former Soviet Union - Estonia, Georgia and Latvia - being in the top 25 in the ease-of-doing business category.

IFC will for the first time launch its first sub-national "Doing Business" report for China later this year. The study will be conducted jointly with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.