Botswana improves ease of doing businesses, says World Bank Report

The World Bank, which has previously scolded Botswana for bottlenecks in doing business, has elevated the country to 56th position globally in the Bretton Woods’ institution annual Ease of Doing Business report for 2014.
In Sub-Saharan Africa according to the report, Botswana moved up from 65 to 56 positions among the 189 countries surveyed. Botswana was ranked fourth in Africa, after Mauritius, Rwanda and South Africa, while also being above seven member state to the European Union.
The report published last week indicates that the most improved domestic category was dealing with construction permits, while areas of relative strength for the country were registering property, protecting investors and resolving insolvency.
The report shows that in Botswana trading across borders, in exporting and importing, became faster thanks to the introduction of a scanner by the country’s customs authority and an upgrade of South Africa’s customs declaration system, both at the Kopfontein and Tlokweng border posts.
“Starting a business computerisation of the registry resulted in more efficiency and substantial time reduction. In protecting investors, Botswana strengthened investor protections by requiring that related-party transactions be approved by the shareholders meeting, and by allowing shareholders to sue directors and obtain the payment of damages if successful,” reads the report.
┬á“Botswana is among the economies that made the greatest improvement for ease of doing business, according to the latest annual global survey by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank, was published earlier this week,” reads the report.
The researchers found that in 2013, Botswana made paying taxes more costly for companies by increasing the profit tax rate while in 2010 registering property Botswana made it more difficult to register property with the addition of a procedure where the tax agency must be notified of the VAT payment.
Also from the report, Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, C├┤te d’Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala are among the economies improving the most in 2012-2013 in areas tracked by Doing Business.
Singapore topped the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are Hong Kong, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the United Kingdom.
Locally, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) has created the physical in-house infrastructure for the One-Stop- Shop and training of operators. It is expected to facilitate investors in, work and residents permits as well as utilities connections. Also currently BITC is currently negotiating Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with key stakeholders, whose services directly impact the business start-up process, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of the One-Stop-Shop.
As part of its mandate, BITC also offers Business facilitation services to ease the process of investing and establishing businesses in Botswana.