Moves afoot to cut investment red tape

Investment South Africa – a
division of the Department of
Trade and Industry (dti) – is
“committed” to reforming its
business processes to improve
South Africa’s current Doing
Business rankings by the World
Bank.
So said the Minister of Trade
and Industry, Dr
Rob Davies, in a
written response to
a question raised in
parliament last week
by the Democratic
Alliance (DA)
Shadow Minister of
Trade and Industry,
Geordin Hill-Lewis.
He pointed out
that Investment SA
and the National
Treasury had
formalised a relationship with the
World Bank and had also arranged
workshops with government
departments and agencies to
understand the World Bank’s
methodology and criteria.
Furthermore, said Davies,
Investment SA was working
on a memorandum on the
indicators used to assess the
ease-of -doing-business. He
noted that the Companies and
Intellectual Property Commission
had made strides in easing and
expediting the process of company
registration.
“Registrations for South African
companies with a
maximum of three
directors can now
be done within
a day compared
with the previous
five to seven days.
Foreign company
registrations could
be finalised in five to
seven days compared
the previous 21
working days,” said
Davies.
South Africa was ranked 72nd
among 89 countries in the 2016
World Bank’s Doing Business
Report, and 74th out of 190 countries
in the 2017 report. SA fared better in
the World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Index 2016/17,
ranking 47th out of 138 countries.
INSERT & CAPTION
Foreign company
registrations could
be finalised in five to
seven days.
– Rob Davies