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IFC commends Ghana for prudent
economic reforms
Accra, Feb. 2, GNA – The International Finance Corporation
(IFC) the private sector arm of the World Bank (WB) has
commended Ghana for implementing prudent economic reforms
leading to the creation of positive business climate in the
country.
Ghana’s ninth position on the “IFC-WB 2007 Doing Business”
rankings is highly creditable, Mr Lars Thunell, IFC
Executive Vice President, stated at a media briefing in
Accra.
The top 10 reformers are, Georgia; Romania; Mexico; China;
Peru; France; Croatia; Guatemala; Ghana and Tanzania. Mr
Thunell, who is on a three-nation African tour to promote
sustainable private sector development, explained that the
rankings were based on simplified business regulations;
strengthened property
rights; eased tax burdens; increased access to credit and
reduction in the cost of exporting and importing.
The IFC Vice President as part of the visit had a working
tour of AfroTropic, a cocoa processing company in the Ghana
Free Zones enclave, and interacted with toddlers at the Star
Avenue Early Childhood Development School in Accra.
Mr Thunell, accompanied by Ms Imoni Akpofure IFC Country
Director, Mr Thierry Tanoh, IFC’s Director for Sub-Saharan
Africa, noted that in spite of the favourable conditions,
there were still significant impediments in doing business.
He identified obstacles such as complicated and costly
business start-up procedures and lengthy import and export
procedures.
The IFC Executive Vice President, therefore, called for
further reforms to improve the business environment to
encourage a strong private sector development.
Statistics from the IFC-WB 2007 Doing Business rankings
obtained by the Ghana News Agency indicated that Ghana, the
top reformer in Africa, reformed her trade, tax and property
administration.
Other reforms were a single window clearance process at
customs where traders could now file all paperwork for all
agencies at one place; clearance time dropped from seven
days to three for imports and from four to two days for
exports.
Ghana also reduced the corporate tax rate and reconstruction
levy for businesses; cutting the overall tax burden from
35.6 per cent to 32.3 per cent of profits and decreased the
stamp duty on property transfers from two per cent to 0.5
per cent of the property value.
On Africa, the report indicates that the Continent made the
top three among reforming regions, after Eastern Europe and
the OECD countries.
Two-thirds of African countries made at least one reform,
whilst Ghana and Tanzania made the list of top 10 reformers
on the list of doing business across 175 economies.
Other high-ranked countries in Africa are South Africa, 29;
Mauritius, 32; and Namibia, 42. Guinea-Bissau and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, ranked
173 and 175, respectively, making them the lowest in the
Region.
The top 30 economies are, Singapore; New Zealand; United
States; Canada; Hong Kong (China); The United Kingdom;
Denmark; Australia; Norway; Ireland; Japan; Iceland; Sweden;
Finland; Switzerland; Lithuania; Estonia; Thailand; Puerto
Rico;
Belgium; Germany; The Netherlands; Korea; Latvia; Malaysia;
Israel; St. Lucia; Chile; South Africa and Austria.
The rankings track indicators of the time and cost to meet
government requirements in business start-up; operation;
trade; taxation and closure. They do not track variables
such as macroeconomic policy; quality of infrastructure;
currency volatility; investor perceptions or crime rates.
GNA
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