In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Portugal it is easier to do business in small towns than in capital cities. This is what emerges from an elaboration by the European Commission (in particular by the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy) on some numbers of the famous "Doing Business" report produced every year by the World Bank. The study starts from data relating to services, level of bureaucracy, rules and openness to the market of 25 cities in the four countries and crosses them with the performance and levels of 186 other urban realities in the EU.
All this to establish where it is more convenient to start a business based on a series of parameters, such as the speed in granting building permits, the cost of utilities and the efficiency in opening construction sites.
In reality, in recent years all four countries analyzed have passed rules to simplify bureaucracy as much as possible: the problem is that in almost all the cities taken into consideration, opening a business is even less convenient than the average of the EU countries.
The palm of the city where it is easier to do business goes to Varazdin, a Croatian town on the border with Slovenia where the efficiency of the bureaucracy is much higher than in the country's capital, Zagreb. The same goes also for Bratislava and Lisbon, clearly overtaken by the small towns of their respective countries. The only capital to save itself is Prague, which ensures higher standards than the average of other Czech cities.
