WINDHOEK – Namibia slipped 11 places in the Ease of Doing Business ranking to 98th from 87th out of 189 countries.
While some other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region also dropped some places, Namibia slid the most followed by Seychelles (six places), South Africa (two places) and Mauritius (one place). Other countries, such as Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe managed to reverse the trend of losing ground in previous years and improved their ranking. Zambia made good strides and bypassed Namibia, taking 83rd place. Namibia’s performance in the 10 components in the Ease of Doing Business index was mixed. The country improved the most in the component ‘Dealing with construction permits’ (up by 25 ranks), mainly because the costs dropped significantly from 111 percent of the per capita income to 31 percent. However, the time for the application process was also cut from 139 days to 123 days, while the number of procedures remained the same at 12.
According to the report Namibia also made progress in easing access to electricity. Namibia moved to 72, an improvement of 15 ranks. On the other hand, the country dropped by 28 places to rank 69 caused by a substantial increase in the time it takes to enforce contracts, which is now 460 days as compared to 270 days in previous years. Resolving insolvency has suffered from the same cause as it now takes 2.5 years to close a business instead of 1.5 years. Subsequently, Namibia dropped by 26 places to rank 85. The report states that most worrying is the country’s ranking in terms of registering property. Once again, it now takes eight days longer than last year and even 31 days more than three years ago. The time consuming process – 54 days – resulted in Namibia shedding nine ranks and dropping to rank 178 out of 189 countries. “As the examples of construction permits and access to electricity indicate, it is possible to speed up bureaucratic processes. If Namibia wants to achieve the objectives of NDP4 and Vision 2030 the trend of falling behind in terms of competitiveness has to be reversed. A review of bureaucratic procedures has to be undertaken as a matter of urgency with the aim of streamlining processes and to improve administrative efficiency,” reads the report. Similarly, Namibia’s ranking in the Economic Freedom Report 2013, based on 2011 data and compiled by the Fraser 80 Institute, deteriorated from rank 88 to 97 out of 152 countries. The ranking is based on five components. Namibia did well in two of them, namely Legal System and Property Rights (rank 27) and Regulation (50), while falling behind her peers in Size of Government (99), Sound Money (referring to money supply and inflation, rank 113) and Freedom to Trade Internationally (rank 117).
By Edgar Brandt