15 September 2008
Washington DC — Botswana is a global leader in regulatory reforms to make doing business easier, according to Doing Business 2009 - the sixth report in an annual series published by the World Bank and IFC.
Botswana reformed in three of the 10 areas studied by the report between June 2007 and June 2008. It ranked seventh among the top 10 regulatory reformers worldwide. Its overall rank on the ease of doing business rose to 38 from 52.
Botswana made trade and the process of business start-ups easier through computerisation and a new companies' Act that strengthened investor protections.
This year, three of the top 10 global reformers -Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Botswana - are from Africa. The top 10 are: Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Egypt. Countries in Africa implemented more reforms than in any year since the start of Doing Business - 28 countries implemented 58 reforms. This makes Africa the most active reforming region after Europe and Central Asia.
"Botswana received well deserved recognition in the Doing Business 2009 report. It's movement up the world wide rankings from 52nd place last year to 38th place this year reflects the serious efforts being made by Government to improve the business environment", said Bernard Drum, the Pretoria based Private Sector Lead Specialist.
"Particularly noteworthy was Botswana's implementation last year of the new Companies' Act, which strengthened the rights of shareholders and increased the accountability of directors. Other improvements include the use of electronic data interchange, which has speeded up customs clearances, and the use of IT to speed up company registration," Drum said.
Mauritius moved up to 24 in the global rankings on the regulatory ease of doing business and continues to provide inspiration for reform and good practices to other economies across Africa. The runner-up in these overall rankings is South Africa at 32, followed by Botswana at 38.
For the third year running, Singapore leads the global rankings for overall regulatory ease of doing business, with New Zealand runner-up, and the United States of America (US) in third place.
"Many African countries are getting inspiration from their neighbours about how to reform," said Allen Dennis, a co-author of the report. "Increasingly, countries in the region are committing to reform agendas that make it easier to do business," he added.
Doing Business 2009 ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business based on 10 indicators of business regulation that record the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business.
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