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Zambia moves up on World Bank rankings

Zambia moves up on World Bank rankings
Written by Kingsley Kaswende and Nchima Nchito
Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:10:35 AM

ZAMBIA has improved its position on the World Bank rankings with regard to the ease of doing business. According to a latest report entitled ‘Doing Business 2010: Reforming Through Difficult Times’, Zambia is ranked 90th out of 183 world economies and is only sixth out of 46 sub-Saharan countries that were measured with regard to regulations that made it easy to do business.

Last year, Zambia ranked 100th out of 181 countries that were studied. In Africa, Zambia comes after South Africa (34th), Botswana (45th), Namibia (66th), Rwanda (67th) and Tunisia (70th).

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, is a distant 159th overall as it struggles to make key economic reforms, but is still better than 18 other sub-Saharan countries.

Zimbabwe slipped from position 154 in the 2008 report to 158 in the 2009 report, and down to 159 in the current report.

Doing Business investigates the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.

It presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights such as: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

It, however, does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level, or the strength of financial systems.

In the latest report, country data are current as of June 1, 2009.

According to the report, Rwanda was the world’s top reformer, the first time a country from sub-Saharan Africa had ever recorded such results.

Its performance was based on the number and impact of reforms implemented between June 2008 and May this year.

Rwanda reformed in seven of the 10 business regulation areas measured by Doing Business.

“It now takes a Rwandan entrepreneur just two procedures and three days to start a business. Imports and exports are more efficient, and transferring property takes less time thanks to a reorganised registry and statutory time limits. Investors have more protection, insolvency reorganisation has been streamlined, and a wider range of assets can be used as collateral to access credit,” the report states.

World Bank acting vice-president for Financial and Private Sector Development, Penelope Brook, remarked that the report showed that some post-conflict economies in the region were actively improving the regulatory framework for private sector-led development.

“In times overshadowed by the global financial and economic crisis, business regulation can make an important difference for how easy it is to reorganise troubled firms to help them survive, to rebuild when demand rebounds, and to get new businesses started,” said Brook.

Labels: World Bank

posted by MrK @ 1:14 AM