It slipped one place despite improving its overall score from 68.36 points last year to 69.8 this year, according to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2020 report released Thursday.

The report ranks 190 economies around the world based on 10 criteria: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit; protecting minority investors; paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts; and resolving insolvency.

This year, Vietnam fared better than several Southeast Asian peers like Indonesia (73rd), the Philippines (95th), Cambodia (144th), Laos (154th) and Myanmar (165th).

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam was ranked fifth after Singapore (2nd), Malaysia (12th), Thaialnd (21st) and Brunei (66th).

Vietnam has been striving to improve its business environment in recent years. The most significant improvement was made in paying taxes, which jumped 22 places from last year to 109th this year thanks to upgrading the information technology infrastructure used by the General Department of Taxation, the report said.

The country has witnessed substantial improvements in getting credit, which increased seven places from last year to 25th this year.

Meanwhile, some areas saw steep decline against last year’s results. Protecting minority investors dropped 8 places from last year to 97th this year, trading across borders falling four places to 104th while enforcing contracts down six places to 68th. It had low rankings in starting a business (115th) and resolving insolvency (122nd).

Today, an entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City spends 16 days and 5.6 percent of income per capita registering a new company with eight procedures. Corresponding figures for Thailand’s Bangkok were five procedures, six days and 3 percent; and in Singapore, just two procedures, 1.5 days and 0.4 percent.

New Zealand was the easiest economy to do a business this year, followed by Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea.