Guyana’s ease of doing business ranking remains dismal

Oct 28, 2019 News

The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2020 has found yet again that Guyana’s business environment is left wanting.
The report, which analyses the ease of doing business of 190 countries, has placed Guyana at rank 134/190.
That means that Guyana’s regulatory environment is not very conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm, and that a lot more needs to be done.
Guyana’s overall score on the report is 55.5, down from 55.6 in the previous report. The slight decrease was caused by it now being a little more difficult to trade across borders, according to the World Bank. That indicator measures the costs, regulations and the time taken to trade, and finds Guyana ranking 151/190. The report found that Guyana made trading across borders more expensive by increasing the fees for mandatory inspection through scanners for exports, thereby increasing the cost of export border compliance.
The report did not note any positive regulatory improvements by Guyana.
The country’s worst performance on this report is seen in the ‘Getting Electricity’ indicator, where the country is ranked 170/190. That indicator considers procedures, time, and cost to get connected to the electrical grid; the reliability of the electricity supply; and the transparency of tariffs. For that indicator, on a list of 55 upper middle income economies, Guyana ranks at 54, just above crisis-stricken Venezuela. Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, had told Kaieteur News last month that, though Government has taken progressive strides toward the goal of ending blackouts; he believes that there is no quick fix.
Guyana also recorded consistently poor performances in resolving insolvency (163/190), dealing with construction permits (167/190), registering property (128/190) and paying taxes (122/190).
Guyana’s best performance indicator – starting a business – earned it a score of 85.6/100, but the relatively good performances across the globe places the country’s ranking at 111/190. Its other better indicators are protecting minority investors (88/190), enforcing contracts (92/190), and getting credit (94/190).
It has been brought to the attention of the public that Guyana’s poor performance in ease of doing business is below the West Bank and Gaza, a landlocked territory plagued by international human rights violations, widespread unemployment and food insecurity.
Notably, Jamaica (71/190), Trinidad and Tobago (105/190), and Barbados (128/190) are all ahead of Guyana.
The region of Latin America and the Caribbean is noted collectively to lag in terms of reform implementation and impact. No economies from this region appeared in the 10 top improvers list over the past two years. Further, not a single economy in Latin America and the Caribbean ranks among the top 50 on the ease of doing business.
The top three performers in the world are New Zealand (1/190), Singapore (2/190) and Hong Kong (3/190), while the last three are Venezuela (188/190), Eritrea (189/190), and Somalia (190/190).
Doing Business acknowledged the ten countries that improved the most: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria. Their improvements are attributed to a string of regulatory reforms.

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