Business regulation study: 'SA OK'
According to a recent World Bank report, South Africa is more efficient than developed countries such as Germany, France and China when it comes to registering a new business.
The report, Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation, collects and analyses data on over 130 countries.
The analysis is based on assessments of each country's laws and regulations, with input from local experts who assist entrepreneurs with starting and closing businesses, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, and securing credit.
According to the report, South Africa takes 38 days to register a new business, whereas France takes 53 days, China 46 days and Germany 45 days.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark and the United States - two to four days to open a new business - were found to be the most efficient countries.
On the other end of the scale, a new business takes 122 days to be registered in Zimbabwe, 146 days in Angola and 153 days in Mozambique.
In South Africa, there are only nine procedures that must be undertaken to register a business, fewer than in France, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Employment legislation
South Africa also scored favourably in the employment laws index, with 36 points. The index takes an average of three indices - flexibility of hiring, conditions of employment, and flexibility of firing - and assigns a value between 0 and 100, with higher values indicating greater regulation.
Singapore was the least regulated country in respect of employment legislation, with 20 points, followed by the United States (22 points), Denmark (25) and Malaysia (25). Zimbabwe scored 27 points.
When it came to enforcing business contracts, South Africa was less efficient, taking 207 days to go through the legal process - slower than Zimbabwe, Zambia and Cote d'Ivoire, but a lot quicker than extreme cases such as Guatemala and Slovenia, where it can take more than four years to enforce a contract!
The survey found that poor countries tend to regulate business the most, and that "heavier regulation typically brings bad outcomes". Cumbersome regulation, the report finds, is associated with greater inefficiency in public institutions, longer delays and higher costs, and often results in higher unemployment, increased corruption and less productivity and investment.
Overall, poorer countries such as Mozambique and Burkina Faso regulated business the most, while wealthier ones, including Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK, regulated the least.
"The report provides policy makers and the public with quantitative measures on business regulations - data that will facilitate the reform efforts of governments", said Michael Klein, World Bank vice president for private sector development.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
