Guatemala was the only country in the region that improved its position in the global ranking monitoring businessmen's conditions for doing business, while the others went backwards.
The World Bank released the results of the Doing Business 2020 report, which measures the regulations that favor or restrict the development of business activity in different countries.
Costa Rica and Panama are the economies of the region where businessmen find it easier to develop business, followed by El Salvador and Guatemala, and in the last two places, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The World Bank announced the results of the Doing Business 2019 report, which measures the regulations that favor or restrict the development of business activity in different countries.
Find out in which country of the region it is easiest to obtain a construction permit, where the least taxes are paid, where a creditor is more likely to recover a debt, and where minority investors are most protected.
The World Bank has presented its Doing Business 2018 report, which measures regulations that favor or restrict business activities.Doing Business is made up of quantitative indicators measuring business regulations and the protection of private property rights that are comparable in 190 economies over time.
The time it takes to open a business has reduced from 36 to 13 days, and the number of procedures required to do so from 7 to 6.
Excerpt from the executive summary of the "Economic Report 2016 Cross-Border Trade Institutions and Red Tape" by Funides:
In this document the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides) will address issues of cross-border trade and red tape, particularly in relation to the ease of import and exporting, creating or formalizing a business and paying taxes and for social benefits.
The average time for the region is 28 days and the average cost is 48% of GDP per capita, a far cry from OECD average time and costs which are 9 days and 3.4% of GDP per capita.
Using data from the Regional Economic Report 2015, an article on Prensa.com outlines that "... Of all the countries in Central America Panama is the place where starting a business requires the least paperwork, time and cost.
A World Bank study has evaluated regulations which exist in 22 cities in the region for starting new business, registration, construction, and border trade.
From a statement issued by the World Bank:
Doing Business in Central America and the Dominican Republic 2015 compares business regulations in 6 Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) and the Dominican Republic.
While in Panama a company can send a container abroad in 10 days, in Nicaragua the process takes 21 days.
Of all the countries in the region Nicaragua is the place where exporting or importing goods takes the longest, significantly increasing the cost of these commercial operations, said the Doing Business report issued by the World Bank (WB).
The cost stated in the report "does not include the payment for freight, which usually varies depending on the final destination of the cargo. In this, according to the WB, are all the costs associated with the completion of the procedures which have to be undertaken for exporting or importing goods. "This includes documentation costs, administrative fees for customs clearance and inspection, customs broker fees, port charges and inland transport costs, among other things." It even incorporates the cost of bribes which sometimes occur in the process of obtaining a document. "
It is the longest amount of time in the entire Central American region for formalizing a new business.
Laprensa.com.ni reports: "While in Panama it takes five days to open a business, in the case of Nicaragua 36 days are needed, the longest in all of Central America, according to the Doing Business Report 2014, by the World Bank (WB) ... ".
The report reveals that although Nicaragua is a country with the fewest amount of procedures needed to start a business, "the bottleneck" is in the process of obtaining permits for electricity, construction, property registration and other things.
Judicially enforcing a contract takes 1402 days in Guatemala, 920 in Honduras, 852 in Costa Rica, 786 in El Salvador, 686 in Panama, and 409 in Nicaragua.
The data comes from the 2014 Doing Business report by the World Bank.
The extreme difficulty of enforcing contracts by means of the administration of justice systems is endemic in Latin America, which, as stated an article in Miamiherald.com by Andres Oppenheimer, contributes "to slow economic growth."
Its a vicious circle where lack of trust leads to unnecessary requirements, the requirements leads to cumbersome procedures, the procedures sets up the trap, the trap to the bribe, and the whole thing starts over again.
Hugo Maul in his article on the blog of the National Economic Research Center (CIEN), unveils the hidden evil behind the red tape that stifles Central American economies - and not only in Guatemala, on which his analysis is focused.
In 2012, companies around the world will provide Chinese visitors and clients luxury care, more benefits and personalized services.
China is the new emperor, and companies and governments are courting the Chinese. No wonder the red carpet will extend in all places where Chinese businessmen and politicians set foot. Large stores, airlines, hotels, museums, entire cities, will multiply their efforts to provide more and better services to citizens of China, the new major player in global consumption.
Latin America is barely ahead of Africa in quality standards and conditions affecting local businesses.
As a region, Central America, is located in the second half of the list entitled ‘Doing Business 2012’.
Doing Business 2012, a report by the World Bank this year added a new area of analysis, which is the ease of obtaining an electrical connection, along with the traditional items which include: ease of starting a business, management of construction permits, registering property , getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, cross border trade, enforcing contracts, and insolvency resolution.
Position in 2010 Rankings: Panama 72 (62 in 2009), El Salvador 86 (80), Guatemala 101 (100), Nicaragua 117 (119), Costa Rica 125 (121), Honduras 131 (128).
With the exception of Nicaragua, which rose two places, the Doing Business 2011 ranking shows that easiness of doing business in the Central American countries has deteriorated, at least in relation to other countries.
An ex President, high ranking public officers and distinguished businessmen are sentenced for corruption and peculation in Costa Rica.
When justifying the sentence, the judges told of how a group of powerful politicians from a prominent party conformed a criminal gang which developed an entire operation using assets of the State, among them Legislative Assembly and Social Security, to make money with illegal commissions paid by foreign and domestic dishonest businessmen.
Side by side, country by country: the most problematic factors for doing business in Central America.
We define competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.
The level of productivity, in turn, sets the sustainable level of prosperity that can be earned by an economy. In other words, more-competitive economies tend to be able to produce higher levels of income for their citizens.The productivity level also determines the rates of return obtained by investments in an economy. Because the rates of return are the fundamental drivers of the growth rates of the economy, a more-competitive economy is one that is likely to grow faster in the medium to long run.