Mexico considered the best country in the region to do business.

Based on World Bank analysis, eleven criteria were used to classify the difficulty of doing business in Latin America: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting minority investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Resolving insolvency, Employing workers.

The countries that stand out are:

Figure 1: Ranking and scoring in terms of ease of doing business

Note: The ease of doing business is measured according to the performance of each economy in each of the criteria used. Data collected from 2005, on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the least ease and 100 represents the greatest ease.

Ranking Trends

• Mexico, in 60th place in the ranking This year’s global Doing Business ranking obtained the best ranking in the Latin America and Caribbean region, followed by Puerto Rico [USA] (65th) and Colombia (67th). Other large economies: Brazil (124th) and Argentina (126th).
• Lowest ranked economies: Venezuela (188th), Haiti (179th) and Suriname (162nd).
• The regional average ease of doing business is 59.1. The average value of upper-middle income savings is 78.4. Global average: 63.
• The region performs better in the areas of obtaining electricity and obtaining credit. It takes 67 days for an entrepreneur to get a new electrical connection, compared to a global average of 83 days. Puerto Rico [USA] (4th), Colombia (11th), Mexico (11th), Costa Rica (15th), Jamaica (15th), and Guatemala (15th), are among the top twenty in the credit obtaining indicator.
• The region’s economies perform poorly in the area of tax payments. It takes, on average, 317 hours per year to comply with tax obligations. The global average is 234 hours per year.

Registering property and starting a business are areas where improvement continues. It takes, on average, 64 days to transfer properties in the region at an average cost of 5.9% of the property’s value. In medium-high income economies it takes 24 days, 4.2% of the value of the property. Furthermore, it costs an average of 31.4% of GDP per capita to start a business. Global average: 19.9%.

Trends for reform

• Two-thirds of economies have evolved in at least one area measured by Doing Business. 35 reforms were implemented in 21 of the region’s 32 economies last year.
• No economy in the region was among the 10 most evolved globally this year.
• The region’s economies implemented the most reforms in the areas of business opening (seven), followed by contract enforcement and cross-border trade (six each).
• The Bahamas has carried out the most renovations in the region, with four. Argentina, Barbados and Colombia follow with three reforms each.

Examples of reforms include:

– The Bahamas strengthened minority investor protections, increasing disclosure requirements for conflicts of interest and requiring greater corporate transparency.

– Argentina reduced the time required to comply with export/import documents by introducing electronic certificates of origin and improving import licensing.

– Barbados made obtaining electricity faster by implementing the stock of material needed for external connection work and offering training programs to the dealership’s engineers.

– Colombia facilitated insolvency processes by increasing the participation of creditors in these processes.

Figure 2: Ranking, number of reforms and ease of doing business for Latin American and Caribbean countries