South Africa Lags Behind Mauritius In Ease Of Doing Business

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

South Africa’s new Companies Act made starting a business easier. The act eliminated the requirement of reserving a company name and simplified the incorporation documents. It made transferring property less costly and more efficient by reducing transfer duty and introducing electronic filing.

Despite the improvement this year, South Africa lags well behind the top African country, Mauritius, which is ranked 23rd. South Africa’s best ranking among the 10 categories is 10th for protecting investors, where Mauritius is only ranked 13th.

South Africa’s worst ranking is 144th, for trading across borders, where Mauritius is ranked 21st.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 36 of 46 governments improved their regulatory environment for domestic businesses in 2010-11 — a record number since 2005.

The World Bank said this was good news for entrepreneurs in the region, where starting and running a business is still more complex than anywhere else.

African leaders have called for a continental free trade area by 2017, which should further increase the opportunities open to South African companies.