11 Sep 2008

World Bank official says PNG needs to undertake business friendly reforms now

3:11 pm on 11 September 2008

The World Bank says Papua New Guinea will remain one of the hardest countries in which to do business in unless immediate reforms are made.

In a report it says PNG failed to reform procedures promoting investor confidence and new business opportunities.

PNG placed 95th out of 181 economies surveyed by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, down six places on last year.

The IFC Doing Business 2009 report found it was much harder to set up and run businesses in PNG than other Pacific nations, which through various reforms had improved their rankings.

The IFC's senior investment policy officer, Ivan Nimac says they think the time for reform is now.

The report found it takes 56 days for an entrepreneur to go through eight procedures before operations can start.

In PNG it takes 217 days and 24 procedures to gain a construction permit, 155 days more than Solomon Islands.

In Fiji it takes four days to register a property but in PNG 72 days.

And in addition there is a high 41.7 per cent tax rate in PNG.