Australia has dropped out of the top 10 places to do business and is behind Macedonia and Taiwan, a World Bank report into business regulation has found.
Singapore topped the list, New Zealand came second, and Eritrea last out of 189 economies. Asian economic powerhouses made substantial gains with China rising up six places to 84th and India gaining 12 places to 130th. Australia fell to 13 from 10 last year. 
Last year, Austrade trumpeted Australia's rankings, saying "overall, Australia ranks 10th in the world for ease of doing business, and fourth when compared with economies with a similar or larger population".
The report says it does not tip countries higher because they have less regulation but instead have measures which allow "efficient and transparent functioning of businesses and markets".
Countries were ranked based on 11 indicators including ease of starting a business, registering property, paying taxes, trade across borders, protecting minority investors, and obtaining credit.
In the indicators Australia's ranking went backwards in starting a business, dropping from seventh to 11th behind New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong, getting access to electricity, moving from 36th to 39th, and registering property, falling from 45 to 47.
In getting financial credit, Australia fell one spot to fifth and fell in protecting minority investors from 64th to 66th spot.
In terms of registering property, the number of procedures and costs were more than usual across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development high-income economies.
Council of Small Business head Peter Strong said it showed how Australia needed to enhance government regulation with technology to be competitive.
"What it shows is other countries are improving their act, so maybe what we need to be looking at is better use of technology to do a lot of these regulatory procedures. There is a gap in streamlining these things," he said.
He said the rise of disruptive businesses made this even more urgent.