调查表示英国是开始新贸易的最佳地方（在线收听）

Survey: Britain Seen as Best Place to

Start New Businesses

调查表示英国是开始新贸易的最佳地方

The survey measures more than 50 variables, from a country's legal environment to the stability of its exchange rates and the existence of alternative sources of funding, in addition to banks.

On most measures, the United Kingdom does very well, says Jim Barth, a senior fellow with the Milken Institute and co-author of the study.

Jim Barth: In particular, the UK is a terrific institutional environment. That is, it has a great rule of law. One knows that one can get contracts enforced in the UK. One knows that basically you have all the legal factors in place to contribute to the extension of credit to businesses, both startups and existing firms that want to grow.

Report authors say the Asian enclaves of Hong Kong and Singapore have created a business-friendly climate with strong access to capital. They rank second and third in the survey. The United States ranks fourth, rising from sixth place last year because of its growing and more stable equity market.

The report covers 121 countries, and co-author Glenn Yago says in some, bond and equity markets provide important new channels of capital for people who want to start or expand a business.

Glenn Yago: Just like you need information technology or you need modern technology in medicine, you need modern financial technologies in order grow an economy. And securitization, the ability to diversify and diffuse risk through the financial system and not have it concentrated in key institutions or large banks that can fail easily, is one of the hallmarks of a modern economy.

Jim Barth says the expanded use of credits cards, to cite just one example, can be good for business.

Jim Barth: In the United States, we find a lot of individuals that want to start a business rely on their own personal credit cards. So other countries can benefit by making credit cards available to individuals that want to start a business. They can actually use their personal credit card and then, ultimately, lenders will eventually provide credit cards for small businesses targeted directly at them.

Researcher Glenn Yago says some emerging European economies, such as Estonia, are moving up the list because their governments are working to improve their financial systems. He says New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico and Bulgaria, while far from the top of the index, showed the greatest improvement in the past year.

Glenn Yago: And then one of the great areas of concern is if we look at the bottom tier of 120 some-odd countries we have ranked here is the really dismal performance of African economies, and the real need to build financial infrastructure, just as we build telecommunications and highways, for African countries to be able to grow.

The country with one of the world's fastest growing economies, China, ranked 38th on the list. The economists say it would be higher but for the lack of a well-developed bond market, an important source of capital for business.

Mike O'Sullivan, VOA news, Los Angeles.

注释：

stability [stE5biliti] n. 稳定

exchange rate 汇率，兑换率

alternative [C:l5tE:nEtiv] adj. 选择性的

co-author [5kEuC:WE(r)] n. 合著者

enclave [5enkleiv] n. 被包围的领土

diffuse [di5fju:z] v. 分散

hallmark [5hC:lmB:k] n. 特点

Estonia [es5tEunjE] n. 爱沙尼亚

dismal [5dizmEl] adj. 低潮的

telecommunication [5telikEmju:ni5keiFEn] n. 电讯，长途通讯