WORLD BANK RATES ZAMBIA AMONG TOP TEN IMPROVED ECONOMIES

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 11:12:22 +0000

By Mailesi Banda

Zambia is one of  ten economies showing the most notable improvement in doing business in 2018, according to the  World Bank ease of doing business rankings.

Zambia has ranked 85th on the ease of doing business 2018 according to the world banks ease of doing business report that was launched in Washington DC yesterday.

According to the report the increase of 3.92 points means that in the last year Zambia has improved it’s business regulations as captured by the doing business indicators in absolute terms.

This clearly shows that the country is narrowing the gap with the global regulatory frontier.

The report discloses that Zambia implemented three reforms making it easier to do business in Lusaka over the course of last year in areas of getting credit, paying taxes and trading across borders.

Zambia is recorded to have strengthened access to credit by introducing a new movable property act and by setting up a new collateral registry. The new law is said to have implemented a functional and  secured transaction system.

The introduction of an online platform for filing and paying taxes and the implementation of the web based customs data management system are among the contributions to the country’s improvement.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry, permanent  Secretary, Kayula Siame says the improvement in the ranking was beneficial for Zambia as it would attract Investment.

Speaking immediately after being part of the audience during the launch which was done through video conferencing from Washington she said the improvement in the ranking called for more work to make doing business in Zambia even easier. “As Zambia this announcement brings joy to us as it shows that the private sector is benefiting from the reforms being implemented by the Government,” she said.

The ease of doing business report is presented every last week of October and analyses the performance of 190 economies and 201 cities.