Thursday, September 27

Doing Business has just gotten better across the world

Very good news for many countries, they are listening to their people and others, and making it easier to do business. I was quite impressed by Egypt, which has made the biggest jump in rankings! It moved from 165th to 126th. And as the World Bank reports, it made starting a business simpler, slashing the minimum capital requirements, halving the startup time and costs. So you have better entrepreneurship help!. And there is nothing like getting entrepreneurs to kick off work. Make it easy for them and jobs, investment and better growth will follow.


See the example:


Starting a business is not easy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It takes 13 procedures and 155 days—and it costs five times the annual income per capita. The situation is even worse for women: they need the consent of a husband. And if you are a single woman, a judge decides whether you can become a businesswoman. The result: Only 18 percent of small businesses are run by women in the DRC. Next door, in Rwanda, which has no such regulations, women
run more than 41 percent of small businesses.

See here for a great overview:


But not all were good. Venezuela, the great people's socialist wonderland fell to 172nd from 164th last year. But President Chavez is a ninny anyway and he is now the proud possessor of the title of being runner-up to the Democratic Republic of Congo for doing business in!.


India is mixed, it improved a bit but its still ranked 120th compared to 83 for China. In India, the time to obtain a business licence ranges from 159 days in Bhubaneshwar to 522 in Ranchi, compared to everything done and dusted and up and running in TWO days in Australia. I dont think the Australians are moaning are they?

Looking at the United Kingdom rankings, I am afraid the news is not that good either. Well, they are definitely better than India, but the competition for the UK is not against the Indians but against Singapore, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong and Denmark. The UK is ranked 6th in terms of ease of doing business. The only place we hit the top is the ease of getting credit, but in all the other factors, we were rather bad. And some of them are really stupid (we can fix them very easily!)

We are 54th in terms of dealing with licences, 21st in terms of hiring workers, 19th on registering property, and 24th in terms of enforcing contracts, just to pick some of the most egarious aspects. Truly bureacracy gone wild, and these factors are gobsmacking. Why on earth are we 19th on the list of registering property? the land of the Domesday Book? And 24th in terms of enforcing contracts? the country which gave modern law to the world? Horribly Bizarre!. And the UK is getting worse if you look at the yearly progress instead of improving!

Read and Learn!

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

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