Fresh hope on doing business
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is raising hopes over reforms it undertakes after East Africa’s second biggest economy improved three places in this year’s doing business.
The World Bank’s Doing Business Report, which compares business regulation in 190 world economies, ranks Tanzania 141st, an improvement from 144 previously.
Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) executive director Geoffrey Mwambe associates the improvement with the implementation of “the blueprint” – a guiding document adopted by the government on regulatory reforms to improve the business environment.
“The government just started implementing the blueprint this year - and these are the results. We hope we will do better and probably become in the list of Top 100 soon,” said Mr Mwambe.
He also mentioned the shift to electronic payment of taxes as another step which make Tanzania’s business environment better.
Some of the reforms implemented include making starting a business easier by launching online company registrations.
Despite this year’s improvement, Tanzania is fourth in the East African Community after Rwanda (38), Kenya (56) and Uganda (116).
Burundi and South Sudan follow the trail after they were ranked 166 and 185 respectively.
Tanzania ranking has been volatile in the last ten years ranging between the highest of 125 in 2011 and the lowest of 145 in 2014.
Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in the series of annual studies investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
Regulations affecting areas of the life of a business were covered: 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.
Data in Doing Business 2020 are current as of May 1, 2019. The indicators are used to analyse economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.
However, Mr Mwambe questioned the methodology calling it “subjective ranking.”
“The supply of information depends much on the consultants engaged by the World Bank institution and in most cases these people do not have access to current government information. So, there is possibility to give outdated or inaccurate information,” he said.
The report acknowledges Tanzania’s efforts to resolve complaints which can go up to four years in some countries.
“Worldwide, resolving complaints takes longer when courts are involved, and tends to be more efficient once a dedicated administrative authority is in charge. In 2011, Tanzania established the Public Procurement Appeals Authority as an independent and quasi-judicial administrative body to resolve appeals from challenges against procuring entities in an efficient and specialised manner. As a result, challenges against award decisions are decided in 41 days, and challenges on tender documents are resolved in 18 days,” stated the report.
TIC Projects
Meanwhile, TIC said it registered 227 projects worth $2.006 billion in the last nine months of 2019. Mr Mwambe said the largest share (128 projects) were directed to manufacturing while 29 others were on transport.
However, Mr Mwambe did not give more details of the investment projects including the performance comparison for the same period last year.
However, the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that the value of investment registered through the TIC had reduced from $5.07 billion in 2017 to $2.82 billion in 2018.
