Thailand expects a better ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking in 2020, Pakon Ninpraphan, secretary-general of the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC) said on Thursday.
Thailand's ranking over the past few years has remained stagnant at around 27th.
However, the introduction of a digital system to improve convenience in services offered by state agencies to business operators should improve matters, he said.
Digitising these services is estimated to lift the speed of the services by between 30% and 40%, he said.
Some representatives of the World Bank on Thursday began their visit to Thailand to compile information for assessing the so-called ease of doing business in Thailand for the World Bank's 2020 ranking, he said.
The World Bank staff met Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his deputy, Somkid Jatusripitak, who oversees the government's business affairs and is head of the economic team, said Mr Pakon.
Today, the representatives will meet officials of the Bank of Thailand, the Fiscal Policy Office and both Thai and foreign business operators here, he said.
Ten main indicators are normally taken into account when the World Bank assesses the ease of boding business situation of each country, Mr Pakorn said.
Convenience in initiating a new business, which involves several state agencies including Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, for instance, is among the key indicators used to evaluate and measure a country's level of ease of doing business, he said.
It takes approximately 30 days to form and register a new company in Thailand, compared to only five days in New Zealand, a country ranked first in this year's ease of doing business index by the World Bank, he said.
Meanwhile, the OPDC is considering waiving fees of 100 baht or less, which are now collected for certain services offered by state offices, such as a citizen's request for a copy of a house registration document which costs 10 baht each, said Mr Pakon.
This was part of the government's bid to phase out the use of some physical paper documents in favour of paperless ones, he said.
Mr Pakorn said he expected more people will lodge requests for business services online and the services will also be processed in an expeditious manner.