|
Doing business in Tanzania improving, but more ought to be done - report
2008-01-24 09:12:20
By Perege Gumbo
The year 2008 Doing Business report has painted Tanzania positively, amid criticism that there was still room for improvement.
The report indicates that Tanzania has improved from previous year’s performance by 20 ranks, a performance which experts consider to be low compared with the resources potential the country is endowed with.
An expert with Rex Attorneys, Dr Hawa Sinare, commented that there was a lot that needed improvement without necessarily involving amendment of existing laws, to raise the country’s capacity of doing business in the eyes of local and international communities.
The report has specifically pointed fingers at areas that require immediate improvement, which include getting licences; employing workers; registering property and acquisition of credit from financial institutions.
In the foregoing areas, Tanzania’s performance has not been impressive considering that it scored 170, 151, 160 and 115 positions respectively out of 178 countries.
On the ease of doing business across the globe, Tanzania ranked 130 behind Uganda with the best countries and their rankings in brackets being Singapore (1), South Africa (35), Botswana (51) and Kenya (72). Others countries are Zambia (116), Uganda (118) and Mozambique scoring 134 - few points behind Tanzania.
According to the report, procedures to deal with licenses in Tanzania seem to have deteriorated from previous year’s performance from 168 ranks attained in 2007 to 170 in 2008.
There have also been no improvements in terms of duration through which an applicant waited for obtaining business license as it took 308 days since 2006, 2007 and in 2008.
In dealing with licences in Tanzania, an applicant has to through 21 procedures, the figure which has remained unchanged for three consecutive years.
Property registration is another factor which would require Tanzania to do more to improve its future ranking, according to the report.
Despite the ranking sliding back from 158 attained last year to the current 160, there has been slight improvement in the number of days taken to register property from 123 days in 2007 to 119 today.
However, the procedure involved in the process of registering property has all along remained constant with no improvements.
Commenting on the performance of Tanzania, the World Bank Group official in Dar es Salaam, Michael Wong, said that there was a need for the country to improve and become much more competitive.
He said that Tanzania should struggle to implement regulations, computerise and streamline BRELA as one of the solutions to improving its ranking for new business starters.
On the other hand, he advised that procedures for provision of certificate of occupancies should be accelerated and registration procedures streamlined.
He added that labour regulations must be improved and implementation of phase two labour reforms should take place.
The Doing Business survey considers other factors to include starting a business (Entry regulation); dealing with licences (building a warehouse), hiring and firing workers (employment regulation) and registering property (regulation of property transfers).
|
