The Doing Business 2010 report from the World Bank commends leaders in countries around the world for instituting reforms that make doing business easier.  The report gives high marks especially to countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia where the report says that 84% of economies instituted at least one Doing Business reform.  Overall, 75% of economies had at least 1 key reform in 2009/10:

The 2010 report has an optimistic tone, as the authors seem to feel that policy makers around the globe have heeded some important lessons from the last few years and are trying to make it easier for start-ups and small businesses:

Against the backdrop of the global financial and economic crisis, policy makers around the world took steps in the past year to make it easier for local firms to start up and operate. This is important. Throughout 2009/10 firms around the world felt the repercussions of what began as a financial crisis in mostly high income economies and then spread as an economic crisis to many more. While some economies have been hit harder than others, how easy or difficult it is to start and run a business, and how efficient courts and insolvency proceedings are, can influence how firms cope with crises and how quickly they can seize new opportunities.

Between June 2009 and May 2010 governments in 117 economies implemented 216 business regulation reforms making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures. More than half those policy changes eased start-up, trade and the payment of taxes (figure 1.1).

Read the full report here.