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Zimbabwe has moved 16 places up on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index as the economy warms up to Government initiatives.
A World Bank report shows that Zimbabwe is now ranked at 155 of 189 countries on the Ease of Doing Business.
According to the report – Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency – Zimbabwe moved 11 places to 79 from 90 in respect of getting credit and six places to 81 in terms of protecting minority investors out of 189 countries.
“Zimbabwe recorded two positive reforms as measured by the Doing Business methodology during the course of this report’s data collection cycle (June 1, 2014-June 1, 2015),” the World Bank reported on Tuesday.
On starting a business, World Bank records that on the total number of procedures required to register a firm, Zimbabwe is a 9,0 against the subSaharan Africa (SSA) figure of 8,0. It takes 90 days to register a firm vs SSA average of 26,8. Cost as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita is at 112,0 against SSA 53,4.
Sub-Saharan Africa economies continue to implement reforms to improve the business climate for domestic entrepreneurs, with members of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) particularly active during the past year, says the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business measurement.
The report found out that 85 developing economies implemented 169 business reforms in the past year, compared with 154 reforms the previous year. On the other hand, high-income economies carried out an additional 62 reforms, bringing the total for the past year to 231 reforms in 122 economies globally.
The World Bank says modern economies cannot function without regulation and, but also, it can be brought to a standstill through poor and cumbersome regulation.
“The challenge of development is to tread this narrow path by identifying regulations that are good and necessary, and shunning ones that thwart creativity and hamper the functioning of small and medium enterprises,” said Mr Kaushik Basu, the World Bank Group’s chief economist and senior vice president.
Minister of Policy Co-ordination and Promotion of Socio-Economic Ventures in the President’s Office, Simon Khaya Moyo, recently told a business conference on national competitiveness that the Government is working on improving doing business conditions.
He said that the project would allow the Government to have a direct impact on business conditions to drive economic growth and lure investment. The country is averaging annual foreign investment of just over half a billion compared to its regional peers who are drawing in upwards of $2 billion.
“The Ease of Doing Business Project would allow the Government to have a direct impact on business conditions by addressing some challenges through legal, regulatory or administrative reforms,” the minister said.
With a total of 69 reforms, sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of reforms accounting for about 30 percent of the regulatory reforms globally, followed closely by Europe and Central Asia (58 reforms).
Online Reporter