SA gains one position in 'Ease of Doing Business'

Last year SA improved in six categories compared with the prior year‚ but showed a drop in three categories with a new category on electricity provision being the main culprit for the overall one position decline.

SA made starting a business easier by implementing its new company law‚ which eliminated the requirement to reserve a company name and simplified the incorporation documents.

It also made transferring property less costly and more efficient by reducing the transfer duty and introducing electronic filing‚ while a new reorganisation process facilitated the rehabilitation of financially distressed companies.

Despite the improvement in 2012‚ SA lags well behind the top African country‚ Mauritius‚ which is ranked 23rd.

SA's best ranking amongst the ten categories is 10 for protecting investors‚ where Mauritius is only ranked 13. Its worst ranking is 144 for trading across borders‚ where Mauritius is ranked 21. SA also ranks poorly in getting electricity‚ at 124‚ compared with 44 in Mauritius.

In sub-Saharan Africa 36 of 46 governments improved their economies' regulatory environment for domestic businesses in 2010/11‚ which is a record number since 2005.

The World Bank said this was good news for entrepreneurs in the region‚ where starting and running a business was still costlier and more complex than in any other region of the world.

African leaders have called for a continental free trade area by 2017 to boost trade within the continent‚ which should further boost the opportunities available to SA companies.