Papua New Guinea has risen 14 places overall in the World Bank’s annual ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report.
This year’s edition of the report has placed PNG 119th out of 190 economies, after placing 133 in 2015.
This is primarily due to improvements in starting a business and getting credit.
In an interview with Business Advantage PNG, Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Alan McLay, says that the statistics primarily reflect the ease of doing business in Port Moresby, rather than the rest of the country.
‘The facts and figures for PNG are all gathered in Port Moresby and hence do not take into account that it might be easier to obtain trading licences, for example, in Mt Hagen or Lae as opposed to Port Moresby.
‘However, improving the sad figures on PNG is a good thing, as PNG has been in decline on this index for the past 10 years.
‘I think a lot of the turnaround is due to the improvement in the IPA (Investment Promotion Authority), where there has been a lot of work put into registering companies and obtaining information about them.’
According to data collected by Doing Business, starting a business in PNG requires six procedures, takes 41 days, and costs 15.6 per cent of income per capita.
The credit for the increase in ranking in this criteria is the reduced time required to start a business that has occurred because of the streamlining of business registration procedures at the IPA.
Other Pacific countries ranking higher are: Fiji (97th), Samoa (89th) and Tonga (85th). New Zealand is ranked number one for doing business around the world.
The rankings are based on 10 criteria:
•starting a business
•dealing with construction permits
•getting electricity
•registering property
•getting credit
•protecting minority investors
•paying taxes
•trading across borders
•enforcing contracts and
•resolving insolvency