NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Bahamas has seen a slight decline in its position on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, with this nation dropping one spot to the 119th position.

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranks 190 countries against each other based on how the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation and stronger protections of property rights. Economies with a high rank (1 to 20) have simpler and more friendly regulations for businesses.

The Bahamas is now ranked 119th out of 190 countries on the World Bank’s 2020 Ease of Doing Business Index with a Doing Business Score of 59. 9. The Bahamas drops back to a ranking it received in the World Bank’s 2018 report.

The economies with the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2020 are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. In 2018/19, these countries implemented one-fifth of all the reforms recorded worldwide.

For starting a business, The Bahamas was ranked 94th, with a doing business score of 87, 2.5 points higher than the previous year. The World Bank reported, “The Bahamas made starting a business faster by reducing the registration time for the business license and value added tax and by eliminating the business registration fee.”

The Bahamas was ranked 81st for getting electricity. The World Bank noted, “The Bahamas made getting electricity more transparent by publishing electricity tariffs online.”

This nation did not score positively and saw a nearly 13 point decline in its score with regards in to registering property for which it was ranked 181st. To this the report noted, “The Bahamas made property registration more costly by increasing the stamp duty on property transfers.”

The Bahamas was credited for improvements in strengthening minority investor protections “by increasing disclosure requirements for conflicts of interest, clarifying ownership and control structures, and requiring greater corporate transparency”. It was also credited for making paying taxes easier by enhancing the online value added tax reporting system and making it more accessible to taxpayers.