Switzerland, Norway, UK, Germany, Sweden, and France lead the rankings as best places for private businesses and entrepreneurship to flourish in PwC’s first ever EMEA Private Business Heatmap. It ranks the attractiveness of 34 EMEA countries across categories including macroeconomics, private business landscape, tax and regulatory environment, Environmental, Social, and Governance metrics, public health, education, skills and talent, and technology infrastructure.

Cyprus ranks in the ‘advancing’ category, placing 12th, with an overall score of 54.5, while The Netherlands ranks 11th (54.8) and Luxembourg 10th (54.9). Cyprus achieved a high ranking in the Macroeconomics (5th) and Tax-Regulatory environment (4th) categories. At the same time, however, the Heatmap’s findings highlight a few categories in which Cyprus still has a long way to go. These fields have to do with ESG metrics (31st) and Technology Infrastructure (18th).

The key findings include:
● Five countries rank as the leading jurisdictions this year.
● A further 12 jurisdictions rank in the ‘advancing’ category with an EPB Heatmap overall score of at least 50 out of 100.
● 12 jurisdictions were identified as ‘developing’ with an EPB Heatmap score of between 40 and 50 out of 100.
● Five jurisdictions were identified as ‘emerging’ with an EPB Heatmap score of less than 40 out of 100.
● All four Nordic countries place within the top 10 jurisdictions based on overall EPB Heatmap rankings: Norway (2nd), Sweden (5th), Denmark (7th), and Finland (8th). Sweden ranks top within the ESG and Public Health categories. Norway co-leads the Education, Skills and Talent category.
● The UK also performs strongly, with a 3rd place ranking overall.