2012年-世界发展银行全球_Doing_Business_Economy_Profile_2013___Lesotho_111页_1mb

Economy Profile: Lesotho - Doing Business 2013

Core Content Overview

The Doing Business 2013 report evaluates the ease of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Lesotho, focusing on regulatory efficiency across 11 key areas. The report provides rankings, procedures, time, and cost metrics for these areas, comparing Lesotho with other economies, particularly comparator economies in the region and the global best performers. It also highlights the progress made by Lesotho over time and the regulatory reforms implemented.

Key Areas and Indicators

The report measures the following key areas in the business life cycle:

• Starting a business
• Dealing with construction permits
• Getting electricity
• Registering property
• Getting credit
• Protecting investors
• Paying taxes
• Trading across borders
• Enforcing contracts
• Resolving insolvency
• Employing workers

Each indicator is evaluated based on the ease of doing business index, which ranks economies from 1 to 185. The index is calculated as the simple average of percentile rankings across the 10 topics (excluding "employing workers").

Lesotho's Business Environment

Economy Overview

• Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
• Income category: Lower middle income
• Population: 2,193,843
• GNI per capita (US$): 1,220
• DB2013 rank: 136
• DB2012 rank: 153
• Change in rank: Improved by 17 positions

Key Indicators

Main Findings

Starting a Business

• Procedures: 7
• Time: 24 days
• Cost: 13.0% of income per capita
• Paid-in Minimum Capital: 0.0% of income per capita

Lesotho has improved its ranking for starting a business from 144 in 2012 to 79 in 2013, a significant improvement. This is due to the introduction of a one-stop shop for company incorporation and the elimination of paid-in minimum capital and notarization requirements for articles of association.

Dealing with Construction Permits

• Procedures: 11
• Time: 330 days
• Cost: 950.4% of income per capita

Lesotho remains one of the worst performers globally in this area, but there has been a slight improvement in time and cost compared to 2012.

Getting Electricity

• Procedures: 5
• Time: 125 days
• Cost: 2,275.9% of income per capita

Lesotho ranks 133 globally for getting electricity, with a high cost and moderate time. It is far behind the best performer, Germany, which has a cost of 353.8% of income per capita and a time of 55 days.

Registering Property

• Procedures: 6
• Time: 101 days
• Cost: 7.9% of property value

Lesotho ranks 157 globally in property registration, with a relatively high cost and time. It is significantly behind the best performer, Georgia, which has a cost of 0.0% of property value and a time of 1 day.

Getting Credit

• Rank: 154
• Strength of legal rights index: 6
• Depth of credit information index: 0
• Public registry coverage: 0.0%
• Private bureau coverage: 0.0%

Lesotho has a low depth of credit information and limited access to public and private registry systems, making it difficult for businesses to obtain credit.

Protecting Investors

• Rank: 100
• Extent of disclosure index: 3
• Extent of director liability index: 4
• Ease of shareholder suits index: 8
• Strength of investor protection index: 5.0

Lesotho performs relatively poorly in investor protection, especially in terms of disclosure and director liability. It is far behind the best performer, New Zealand, which scores 9.7 on the strength of investor protection index.

Paying Taxes

• Rank: 95
• Payments (number per year): 33
• Time (hours per year): 324
• Cost (US$ per container): Not applicable for this indicator

Lesotho ranks 95 globally in paying taxes, with a high number of payments and time, but relatively low cost compared to other comparator economies.

Trading Across Borders

• Rank: 144
• Documents to export: 7
• Time to export: 31 days
• Cost to export: 1,695 USD per container

Lesotho ranks 144 globally for trading across borders, with moderate documentation and time, but high export costs compared to comparator economies.

Enforcing Contracts

• Rank: 139
• Time: 615 days
• Cost: 31.3% of claim
• Procedures: 41

Lesotho has a high time and cost for enforcing contracts, ranking 139 globally. It is far behind the best performer, Luxembourg, which takes only 150 days and has a cost of 0.1% of the claim.

Resolving Insolvency

• Rank: 75
• Time: 2.6 years
• Cost: 8% of estate
• Recovery rate: 37.6 cents on the dollar

Lesotho ranks 75 globally in resolving insolvency, with a moderate time and cost but a low recovery rate compared to the best performer, Japan.

Main Viewpoints

• Lesotho has shown improvement in several areas, particularly in starting a business, where it moved from rank 144 to 79.
• The business environment is still challenging, with high costs and time in most areas.
• Regulatory reforms such as the one-stop shop and elimination of paid-in minimum capital have positively impacted business registration.
• The distance to frontier measure highlights that Lesotho is still far from the best practices in most indicators.
• The report underscores the importance of comparative analysis to identify areas for reform and benchmark progress.

Key Information

• Doing Business methodology measures the ease of doing business based on procedures, time, and cost.
• The rankings are based on the simple average of percentile rankings.
• The distance to frontier measure helps identify how far an economy is from the most efficient practices.
• Lesotho's business environment is ranked 136 out of 185 globally, indicating a challenging regulatory climate for SMEs.
• The most recent reforms in Lesotho include the one-stop shop and the removal of notarization and paid-in capital requirements.

Conclusion

The Doing Business 2013 report provides a comprehensive overview of the business environment in Lesotho, highlighting both progress and persistent challenges. While some reforms have improved the ease of starting a business, other areas such as getting credit, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency remain problematic. The report serves as a useful tool for policy makers to identify areas for improvement and benchmark against global best practices.