While Zimbabwe
has fallen
two places
to position
155 out of the 189 countries
ranked in the 2016 World
Bank Doing Business report,
it is becoming easier to import
and export.
The report shows that
Zimbabwe, which has
committed to far-reaching
reforms to promote foreign
direct investment, has
moved up in the rankings on
getting credit and protecting
minority investors.
Countries are ranked
in terms of 10 criteria –
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.
For landlocked countries
like Zimbabwe one of the
important measures is the
Distance to Frontier score
(DTF), which benchmarks
economies with respect to
regulatory practice, showing
the absolute distance to the
best performance in each
Doing Business indicator.
Zimbabwe has improved
its DTF scorecard by 0.84%
from 47.33 in 2015 to 48.17 in
the 2016 report.
Globally, Zimbabwe stands
at 100 in the ranking of
189 economies on the ease
of trading across borders
benchmark.
This is one down from the
2015 report.
South Africa is ranked 130,
with a DTF score of 58.01.
Zimbabwe’s second-largest
African trading partner,
Mozambique, is ranked 129th,
with a DTF score of 58.2,
while its new target market,
Namibia, is ranked 118th,
with a DTF score of 61.47.
Zimbabwe compares
favourably against the rest of
sub-Saharan Africa on most
of the yardsticks.
It is cheaper and quicker
for Zimbabwean companies
and individuals to import and
export goods than the rest of
sub-Saharan Africa.
