Dr.Ibrahim AI-Assaf, the Minister of Finance, and Saudi Arabia's Governor at the World Bank Group, has warmly welcomed the recently-released World Bank Group publication “Doing Business 2008”, which has placed Saudi Arabia's overall ranking in doing business at 23d among 178 economies improving from 38 last year. Significantly, the report recognizes that Saudi Arabia was the top reformer worldwide in improving business start up procedures. And it ranked 7th among the top 10 reformers. Characterizing this as a dramatic improvement, Al-Assaf said: "This recognition attests to the Kingdom's longstanding efforts to facilitate the role of private sector entrepreneurs." --MORE