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    BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has been ranked fourth out of 175 nations for its efforts to increase the ease of doing business in the country, in a report by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the bank.

    But the report shows that China still has a lot of work to do to improve its position of 93rd out of 175 for the actual ease of doing business index.

    "China has implemented reforms to speed up business registration and trading, ease access to credit, and improve protection of investors, making it the top reformer in the region and the fourth best worldwide, said the World Bank and the IFC in their report entitled Doing Business 2007: How to Reform.

    Caralee McLiesh, senior economist with the taskforce for the report, said China had reduced the time to register a business from 48 to 35 days and cut the minimum capital required from 947 percent to 213 percent of income per capita, making it easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses.

    China also established a credit information registry for consumer loans, and now 340 million citizens have credit histories, improving their access to credit, said the report.

    Amendments to the company law have strengthened investor protection against insider dealings. And new online customs procedures have reduced the time to import and export by two days, aiding international competitiveness, according to the report.

    The rankings are based on the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure, said the report.

    It said they do not track variables such as market size, macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Enditem