WASHINGTON, DC, United States (CMC) — The World Bank says Jamaica and Mexico have recorded the most reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last five years, continuing to make big strides to improve their countries’ business climate
According to the World Bank’s latest annual ease of doing business measurement, titled “Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency”, which was released Tuesday, Costa Rica is the world’s top improver.
The Washington-based financial institution said Jamaica is also among the global top 10 improvers, as it implemented a regional high of four reforms for the second consecutive year.
On Starting a Business, for instance, the bank said Jamaica decreased the time to incorporate a business from 15 to three days.
Mexico, the best ranked economy in the region, implemented two reforms in the areas of “Getting Credit and Paying Taxes” during the past year, the World Bank said.
As a result, it said the country improved its global ranking to 38 amongst 189 economies worldwide.
“While the pace of reform activity has slowed in Latin America and the Caribbean, improvements are still being made,” said Rita Ramalho, manager of the Doing Business project, noting that “in 2004, only eight economies recorded reforms, compared to 15 in the past year”.
The World Bank said Costa Rica implemented at least three reforms and moved up on the global rankings scale.
For the second year in a row, it said Costa Rica implemented reforms in the areas of Paying Taxes and Getting Electricity, in addition to making Getting Credit easier. On Getting Electricity, the time for a Costa Rican entrepreneur to get connected to the electrical grid has decreased from 55 to 45 days over the past year – which is now less than in Sweden.
The World Bank said several economies in the region also digitized procedures for trading across borders in the past year.
It said Suriname implemented an automated system that allows the electronic submission of customs declarations and supporting documents for exports and imports.
Read the full story at jamaicaobserver.com
