World Bank says Occupy protests fail to impact Hong Kong's business climate

The Occupy protests have not affected Hong Kong's business climate, says the World Bank Group, which in its annual report released yesterday rates the city as the third easiest place in the world to do business.

"Right now, the pro-democracy campaign does not appear to have an impact on the overall business confidence," said Wendy Werner, manager for trade and competitiveness at the World Bank Group, which publishes the annual Doing Business report measuring the regulatory environment for small and medium-sized enterprises.

"We have to distinguish … between the financial and economic impact of the demonstrations [and] the overall business climate," she said. "For the pro-democracy campaign to have any impact on Doing Business indicators it really [would] have to change something about the rules and regulations and their enforcement when it comes to trading, starting a business, registering property."

READ MORE: To view all the latest Occupy Central stories click here

The report - which looks at 10 indicators such as the speed and cost of obtaining credit, construction permits and paying taxes in 189 economies in the year ending in June - does not measure market stability or investor confidence.

"From what we can see here, as long as transparency is strong, there's good corporate governance rules, and we have business-friendly rules and regulations, the investment climate really should stay intact, and that seems to be the case right now [in Hong Kong]," Werner said.

Hong Kong ran second to Singapore in the previous four years as the easiest place to do business. It fell to third this year, behind New Zealand.

The World Bank Group said it introduced major changes to data sources and used a new methodology under which Hong Kong would have ranked third last year with a score lower than it got this year.