World Bank team providing advice on improving local business environment

The Ministry of Business has invited a team from the World Bank to provide advice on improving the local business environment, according to GINA.

The World Bank’s ‘Ease of doing business index’ ranks economies from 1 to 189, with first place being the best. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operating of a local firm. The index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 topics covered.

The World Bank team is visiting Guyana during April 11 – 14 and will have several meetings with both government agencies and the private sector. Their focus is on the 10 pillars of the annual ‘Doing Business Report’. These include trade transactions, access to electricity, credit, land and construction permits, starting a business, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.

The Ministry of Business said it is hoping to consolidate previous reform efforts, current activities and new ideas.  Such improvements can include legislation, administrative procedures, and Information Technology systems, licencing and sharing of information.

In the World Bank Doing Business Index, Guyana is ranked 167th (out of 189 countries) for access to credit. This makes Guyana one of the most difficult places in the world to get credit, and this has contributed to a final position at 137 out of 189 countries overall in the Index.

The rankings are determined by sorting the average distance to frontier scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The distance to frontier score aids in assessing the level of regulatory performance and how it improves over time.

An economy’s distance to frontier is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100, the frontier.