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| "Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who have to use them. Otherwise, businesses get trapped in the unregulated, informal economy where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the protection of labor law," said Michael Klein, the World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development. | |
WASHINGTON DC, United States, September 11, 2008 - An international report has said that regulatory reforms across the Caribbean show a positive trend, with five of the 14 regional countries listed in the report being singled out for their adoption of business-friendly reforms.
'Doing Business 2009', the sixth in an annual series of reports published by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, identified Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and Antigua and Barbuda as Caribbean countries becoming active reformers of business regulation.
"Regulatory reforms are gaining momentum worldwide, and Latin America and the
Caribbean region are part of this trend," it said.
"Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly committed to reform agendas," added Sylvia Solf, lead author of the report. "The region's most popular area for regulatory reform continues to be facilitating trade, followed by changes that make it
easier to start a business."
The Dominican Republic joined the top 10 economies in reforming business regulation for the first time this year, with gains in four of the 10 areas the report studied, including broad tax reforms. That country made progress in reforms to starting a business, registering property, paying taxes and trading across borders.
The others also implemented significant reforms that make it easier to do business, the report said. Antigua and Barbuda as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines reduced their corporate income tax rate, while the latter also introduced a value-added tax to replace several existing taxes and enacted a bankruptcy law, its first set of rules regulating the bankruptcy of private enterprises. Haiti reduced the time taken to export by implementing risk-based inspections in customs, and Jamaica introduced a statutory time limit for issuing building permits and reduced the property transfer tax.
The report said that in the other nine Caribbean countries studied - the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago - no major reforms were recorded.
"Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who have to use them. Otherwise, businesses get trapped in the unregulated, informal economy where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the protection of labor law," said Michael Klein, the World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development.
The 'Doing Business 2009' report ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business based on analyses done between June 2007 and June 2008. It positions countries based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business. The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions or crime rates.
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