afrol News, 8 September - In a newly released report 'Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth', the World Bank has rated Botswana as one of the world's top twenty economies on the ease of doing business. The same report ranked Botswana as being number one in the developing world, the Batswana presidency reports today.

Described as "a comprehensive resource that no investor, policymaker, or economic advisor should be without," the new World Bank report investigates the scope and manner of regulations that enhance business activity, as well as those that constrain, it over time. Its analysis is based on a new set of quantitative indices that collectively compare the business climate in a total of 145 countries.

Botswana and Thailand were the only two economies in the developing world to be ranked among the global top twenty. Botswana was ranked as country number 19, following a large number of industrialised countries. Botswana was further ranked first among the top 10 developing economies, with South Africa (8) and Tunisia (9) being the only African countries following further down on the list.

Both of these rankings were based on composite scores that for the first time drew together indicators measuring best practice in seven key business areas: 1) starting a business, 2) hiring and firing workers, 3) enforcing contracts, 4) getting credit, 5) closing a business, 6) registering property and 7) protecting investors.

These indicators are further used to analyse a wide range of economic and social outcomes, such as productivity, investment potential, informality, lack of corruption, unemployment, and poverty alleviation, as well as to identify on a global scale what reforms have worked, where and why.

In its focus on reforms that work, "the World Bank specifically cited Botswana as being among the leading global innovators in the critical areas of the ease starting a business, reform of labour laws, and contract enforcement procedures," Batswana presidential speaker Jeff Ramsay noted in a statement issued today.

In its summary the World Bank report further had emphasised that the countries that have been included in the top 20 did not achieve their standing by zero regulation but rather the quality of their overall regulatory frameworks.

According to the report: "All the top countries regulate, but they do so in less costly and burdensome ways. And they focus their efforts more on protecting property rights than governments in other countries." The report also found that, in general, businesses in poor countries generally face much larger regulatory burdens than those in rich countries.

By staff writer

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