Yesterday the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation launched the Doing Business 2009 report, an annual analysis of the ease of doing business in 181 countries. Sierra Leone moved up the overall rankings to 156, ahead of its neighbours Liberia 157, Guinea 171, and Cote D'Ivoire 161 in the Mano River Union.

On starting a business, one of the 10 indicators of the Doing Business index, Sierra Leone is the top performer in West Africa. The project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 181 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional levels.

This summary below shows Doing Business 2009 data for Sierra Leone. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 181 economies) and the rankings by each topic.

The rest of the tables summarize key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economic data: Sierra Leone Region: Sub-Saharan Africa Income category: Low income Population: 5,848,320 GNI per capita (US$): 260.00 Ease of...

Doing Business 2009 rank Doing Business 2008 rank Change in rank Doing Business 156 163 +7 Starting a Business 53 94 +41 Dealing with Construction Permits 169 171 +2 Employing Workers 173 173 0 Registering Property 163 175 +12 Getting Credit 145 141 -4 Protecting Investors 53 49 -4 Paying Taxes 160 154 -6 TradingAcross Borders 132 133 +1 Enforcing Contracts 141 139 -2 Closing a Business 145 144 -1 Note: Doing Business 2008 rankings have been recalculated to reflect changes to the methodology and the addition of three new countries.

Starting a Business The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Procedures (number) 7 10.2 5.8 Duration (days) 17 47.8 13.4 Cost (% GNI per capita) 56.2 111.2 4.9 Paid in Min. Capital (% of GNI per capita) 0.0 173.4 19.7 Dealing with Construction Permits Shown below are the procedures, time, and costs to build a warehouse, including obtaining necessary licenses and permits, completing required notifications and inspections, and obtaining utility connections.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Procedures (number) 25 17.2 15.4 Duration (days) 283 271.1 161.5 Cost (% of income per capita) 452.2 2,574.4 56.7 Employing Workers The difficulties that employers face in hiring and firing workers are shown below. Each index assigns values between 0 and 100, with higher values representing more rigid regulations. The Rigidity of Employment Index is an average of the three indices.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Difficulty of Hiring Index 44 39.0 25.7 Rigidity of Hours Index 60 43.5 42.2 Difficulty of Firing Index 50 41.5 26.3 Rigidity of Employment Index 51 41.3 31.4 Firing costs (weeks of salary) 189 68.3 25.8 Registering Property The ease with which businesses can secure rights to property is shown below. Included are the number of steps, time, and cost involved in registering property.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Procedures (number) 7 6.8 4.7 Duration (days) 86 95.6 30.3 Cost (% of property value) 12.9 10.5 4.5 Getting Credit Measures on credit information sharing and the legal rights of borrowers and lenders are shown below. The Legal Rights Index ranges from 0-10, with higher scores indicating that those laws are better designed to expand access to credit. The Credit Information Index measures the scope, access and quality of credit information available through public registries or private bureaus. It ranges from 0-6, with higher values indicating that more credit information is available from a public registry or private bureau.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Legal Rights Index 4 4.5 6.8 Credit Information Index 0 1.4 4.8 Public registry coverage (% adults) 0.0 2.5 8.4 Private bureau coverage (% adults) 0.0 4.8 58.4 Protecting Investors The indicators below describe three dimensions of investor protection: transparency of transactions (Extent of Disclosure Index), liability for self-dealing (Extent of Director Liability Index), shareholders' ability to sue officers and directors for misconduct (Ease of Shareholder Suits Index) and Strength of Investor Protection Index. The indexes vary between 0 and 10, with higher values indicating greater disclosure, greater liability of directors, greater powers of shareholders to challenge the transaction, and better investor protection.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Disclosure Index 3 4.6 5.9 Director Liability Index 6 3.2 5.0 Shareholder Suits Index 8 5.0 6.6 Investor Protection Index 5.7 4.3 5.8 Paying Taxes The data below shows the tax that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures of the administrative burden in paying taxes. These measures include the number of payments an entrepreneur must make; the number of hours spent preparing, filing, and paying; and the percentage of their profits they must pay in taxes.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Payments (number) 28 37.8 13.4 Time (hours) 399 311.7 210.5 Profit tax (%) 0.0 21.5 17.5 Labor tax and contributions (%) 11.3 13.2 24.4 Other taxes (%) 222.2 32.0 3.4 Total tax rate (% profit) 233.5 66.7 45.3 Trading Across Borders The costs and procedures involved in importing and exporting a standardized shipment of goods are detailed under this topic. Every official procedure involved is recorded - starting from the final contractual agreement between the two parties, and ending with the delivery of the goods.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Documents for export (number) 7 7.8 4.5 Time for export (days) 29 34.7 10.7 Cost to export (US$ per container) 1,450 1,878.8 1,069.1 Documents for import (number) 7 8.8 5.1 Time for import (days) 34 41.1 11.4 Cost to import (US$ per container) 1,535 2,278.7 1,132.7 Enforcing Contracts The ease or difficulty of enforcing commercial contracts is measured below. This is determined by following the evolution of a payment dispute and tracking the time, cost, and number of procedures involved from the moment a plaintiff files the lawsuit until actual payment.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Procedures (number) 40 39.4 30.8 Duration (days) 515 659.7 462.7 Cost (% of claim) 149.5 48.9 18.9 Closing a Business The time and cost required to resolve bankruptcies is shown below. The data identifies weaknesses in existing bankruptcy law and the main procedural and administrative bottlenecks in the bankruptcy process. The recovery rate, expressed in terms of how many cents on the dollar claimants recover from the insolvent firm, is also shown.

Indicator Sierra Leone Region OECD Time (years) 2.6 3.4 1.7 Cost (% of estate) 42 20.2 8.4 Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) 8.5 16.9 68.6