Economies with the highest STRI decrease in 2023 were China, Korea, and Portugal (Figure 4, Panel A). China resumed business visa applications after a long-term travel ban implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and introduced some reforms in the construction sector. In Korea, amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act eased the conditions for cross-border data transfers which affected all sectors covered in the STRI. In Portugal, a decrease in the time needed to process a Schengen visa facilitated business travel across services sectors. Other examples of key reforms implemented in 2023 are described in Box 1
Over the period of 2014-23, Brazil, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan were the three countries with the most liberalising policy reforms (Figure 4, Panel B). Brazil has demonstrated progressive liberalisation in recent years, combining cross-cutting measures with more comprehensive liberalisation efforts in key service sectors. Important regulatory changes in Brazil’s financial services sector in recent years have included a 2021 reform on the organisation of the Banking Supervisory Authority, and 2022 reforms liberalising the market with regards to the movement of foreign capital, foreign-owned firms’ access to credit and loans, and conditions on the acquisition of capital by foreigners in Brazilian banks. Brazil continued services trade reforms in 2023, by introducing a de minimis regime for goods within postal or international air parcels valued below USD 50. Lastly, Brazil reverted a 2022 policy change in the insurance sector that imposed residency requirements for the statutory or contractual bodies of supervised entities and insurance brokers.
Indonesia has been implementing extensive reforms since 2014, with comprehensive and far-reaching reforms on foreign investment regulations in several services sectors in 2016 and 2021. Barriers to foreign investment in motion picture, sound recording, and some logistics sectors were lowered in 2016, followed by the lifting of foreign equity restrictions in architecture, construction, engineering, telecommunication, and distribution services in 2021 after the implementation of Presidential Regulation No. 10 of 2021 (updated through Presidential Decree 49/2021).
Kazakhstan has also progressively introduced several liberalisation measures, especially after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2015. Some of these liberalisation measures are cross-cutting and include lifting of quotas and labour market tests for the movement of services providers, as well as improving regulatory transparency.
