Category Archives: Exercises

Doing business in Indonesia

The rank of doing business in Indonesia in 2011 slipped from 121 to 115, as reported by the World Bank.

Pictured by huntz

To start off a business, one needs more than 40 days, Indonesia is now at rank 155, rising from the previous year when they were ranked 159. The year before that, it would take more than 60 days.

Construction permit is at rank 60, registration of property is placed at 98, while getting credit is at rank 116, protecting investors at 44, paying taxes at 130, trading across borders at rank 47, enforcing contracts at 154 and closing business at rank 142.

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Fiji down one in 2011 World Bank ranking

Fiji has dropped one notch to 62nd place in the latest World Bank “Ease of Doing Business” ranking.

The estranged South Pacific nation – still in the grip of military dictatorship under army commander Voreqe Bainimarama and his military led government – scored a series of bad points in five out of nine critical areas of business regulations being examined by the ranking.

Dealing with property, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors and paying taxes were all more cumbersome in Fiji compared to last year.

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Doing business in the Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands moved up ten points to 96 out of 183 economies this year on the ease of starting a business in the country, according to the World Bank ranking.

Photo by metroflags

A higher ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm, based on 9 topics, made up of a variety of indicators.

These include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

But while there is the 10 points upward movement on the ease of starting a business here, almost all topic rankings made negative moves in 2011.

According to the World Bank report, the only improvement on the nine topics was on the area of getting credit which shot up 78 points to 89 from 167 last year.

There was no movement in the enforcement of contracts.

In relations to procedures, it takes up to 17 days to get approval of a company name from the ministry of commerce and up to a month to register the name of company with the registrar of companies.

Other procedures take only a day or two.

The overall country performance in procedures is ranked 7, compared with other Melanesian Spearhead Group members.

Papua New Guinea sits on 6 and both Vanuatu and Fiji are on 8.

Source: (The World Bank)  http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/solomon%20islands/

Doing Business in Vanuatu

Doing Business In Vanuatu

Jonas Cullwick

Vanuatu is ranked number 60 on the World Bank ranking for ease of doing business in countries around the world in 2011, down one place from 59 last year.

But  according to the statistics from the World Bank businesses in Vanuatu find it harder to trade and export their products overseas compared to those in Fiji. The World Bank ranks Vanuatu at 142 on trading across borders while Fiji is ranked 103.

On how easy it is to start a business, the two countries are about the same with Fiji ranked 103 and  Vanuatu 4 points down at 107.

However, it is more than twice as easy to close a business in Vanuatu at 50 than in Fiji ranked 117. The reason for this Dionisia might be able to fill us in on.

Dealing with construction permits is also easier in Vanuatu ranked 21 to Fiji 58.

However, it is twice as easy to register a company in Fiji at rank number 50 to Vanuatu 108.

It is also twice as easy to get credit assistance in Fiji to Vanuatu, and investors are also better protected in Fiji than in Vanuatu.

Vanuatu, 19 is ranked just a few points better than Fiji, 22 on paying taxes, but Fiji’s ranking of 63 on enforcing contracts is better than Vanuatu’s on 76.

Doing business not easy in PNG

William Ire is a betelnut vendor who sells his wares each day, from betelnut, cigarettes, soft drinks and biscuits near his home at 5 Mile in Port Moresby, and has been doing this for the past 8 years.

And now William says he wants to venture into selling second hand clothes, which has become a lucrative income earner for many locals wishing to start small businesses in Port Moresby and other parts of the country, because there is a big demand for fashionable, yet affordable clothing in PNG.

Second hand clothing. Image by martu-mq

William says he has saved up enough capital, over K8,000 to venture into this business, and getting a loan won’t be a problem, because he has saved with Micro finance, who provide loans for starting businesses, and who by chance, charge a very low interest rate.

However, he says, the business may take along time to open its doors, because there are a lot of processes involved in setting up a business in PNG, and true to his word, this is the scenario being faced in the country at the moment

Statistics on Doing Business in PNG, which is a report provided by the International Finance Corporation and World Bank, which measures Business Regulations of different economies, ranks PNG 103 out of 183 countries on the ease of starting a business.

This is mainly due to the long process in filling out paper work and seeking approval from various Government departments like the Lands and Physical Planning, Environment and Conservation and even the health department for licenses to be signed, and also registering the company and getting the tax authorities approval, will cost more money, meaning William maybe paying almost half of his savings to get all these licenses approved and register his company has well.

Williams plan of opening a second hand shop maybe a problem, as well, because he has to fill out more forms with customs to import clothing from Australia, which could take another month or two and cost more money.

So William like many Papua New Guineans and potential business investors from overseas at the end of the day, have to get through so much processes and procedures in order to open a business , which puts locals at a disadvantage, because most may not have enough capital to pay for all the costs , on top of that they will have to wait along time to eventually get their businesses off the ground.