Published: Friday September 12, 2008
It is now more difficult to establish a business in Trinidad and Tobago than in previous years, a new report from the World Bank and its private sector arm, the International Financial Corporation, has shown.
The Doing Business 2009 report indicated that the country fell 13 places, from its spot at number 67 last year, to occupy 80th place this time around.
The World Bank's website indicates that a high ranking on the "Ease of Doing Business Index" means that the regulatory environment in the country is conducive to doing business.
A country's rating is based on the study of its laws and regulations for ten sub-categories, which include starting a business, dealing with construction licences, hiring and firing workers, registering property, getting credit loans, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing the business.
It also included input from local professionals like lawyers, accountants, government officials and business consultants.
Despite much talk about local financial sector law reform and the development of an International Financial Centre, Trinidad and Tobago still ranks behind some of its Caribbean neighbours, such as St Lucia, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Belize and Dominica.
The only Caribbean countries where the business climate overall was rated as more protectionist, more complicated and having weaker property laws were Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Suriname and Guyana.
Despite the global credit crunch and the world economic slowdown many emerging market countries jumped up the ranks.
Trinidad and Tobago, however, got its worst ranking in the "Ease of Registering Property" category, placing 164th on the scale out of 181 countries.
By the Bank's standards that indicated that the procedures, time and cost involved in registering commercial real estate were far more tedious than in most countries.
This year, Singapore ranked at number one, as the easiest country to set up a small, medium or even large, multinational business.
The majority of top-ranking countries where it was easy for nationals and foreigners to open up shop were still developed nations, with the United States coming in at number three and the United Kingdom coming in at number six.
Source:
Aretha Welch
Trinidad Express Newspapers
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161374790
awelch@trinidadexpress.com
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