This week I am going to write about entrepreneurship. I have been searching and reading several articles about which are the best countries to start a business in 2022. The truth is that I did not expect the result of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a report by the World Economic Forum.
Contrary to what many of you may be thinking, according to the World Economic Forum report, the best place to start a new business in 2022 is not the United States.
As I was saying, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a report by the World Economic Forum, the best five countries to start a business in 2022 are the United Arab Emirates, followed by the Netherlands, Finland, Saudi Arabia and Lithuania.
The report evaluates the conditions of entrepreneurs in 50 countries around the world and rates their ability to foster new businesses.
What makes these five countries the best in the world to launch a startup?
The GEM evaluated 13 necessary conditions for the entrepreneurial ecosystem such as business financing, access to capital, supportive government policies, taxes, government entrepreneurial programs and entrepreneurial education at all levels.
Each country was evaluated on the following questions:
- Are there enough funds for new startups?
- Are those funds easily accessible?
- Do they promote and support startups?
- Are startups overloaded?
- Are there quality support programs available?
- Do schools introduce entrepreneurial ideas?
- Do universities offer courses to start a business?
- Can research be translated into new business?
- Is the commercial and professional infrastructure sufficient and affordable?
- Are the markets free, open and growing?
- Does the culture encourage and celebrate entrepreneurship?
- Is public infrastructure sufficient and affordable?
- Does the culture of the country encourage entrepreneurship?
The best place to start a new business in 2022 is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading the list with a rating of 6.8, followed by the Netherlands at 6.3, Finland 6.2, Saudi Arabia 6.1 and Lithuania 6.1.
Since 2020, the UAE has improved in 11 of the 13 conditions, according to the report this could be due among many reasons that the country hosts high-profile business promotion events such as Expo 2020.
In the case of Lithuania, in the last two decades there have been a series of public policy initiatives focused on entrepreneurship.
No country in Latin America appears within the first places of the evaluation. Colombia has the best rating in the region in 25th place with a score of 4.7, followed by Chile in 27th place with a 4.5 rating and Uruguay and Mexico each with 4.3 in positions 32 and 33.
Spain occupies the tenth place with a score of 5.4 points.
