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WASHINGTON, D.C. CMC – Jamaica, The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago are leading the Caribbean in improving the region’s business climate, according to a new World Bank report released here, on Tuesday.
The Washington-based financial institution said the three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries took steps to improve their business regulatory environment over the past year.
The report lists Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago as the countries making up the Caribbean.
The World Bank said the “Doing Business” report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes and resolving insolvency.
The report titled “Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises,” finds that “Jamaica led the way in the Caribbean by adopting new legislation for private credit bureaus, reducing the corporate income tax rate and streamlining procedures for starting a new business”.
It said the Bahamas reduced the cost of transferring property and improved its insolvency process, while Trinidad and Tobago is featured in a case study highlighting its efforts to lower the cost of connecting to the power supply.
Port of Spain is also recognized for simplifying procedures for registering a new business.
“It is encouraging to see countries in the Caribbean engaged in reforms aimed at reducing burdensome regulations and building stronger legal institutions,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group.
“Even after these achievements, however, more can be done to improve the quality of the rules underpinning the activities of the private sector, to ensure continued convergence toward the better practices seen elsewhere in the world,” he added.
The report’s global annual ranking on the ease of doing business shows that Singapore has the most business-friendly regulations.
Photo courtesy of www.augustolopez-claros.net.
Joining it on the list of the top 10 in the ranking are Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, South Korea, Georgia, Norway and the United Kingdom.
