Costa Rica Drops In Business Index Despite Some Procedural Improvements.

Costa Rica lost five places in the Doing Business 2015 report despite the reported advances in taking less time to do procedures with some state institutions.

In the study elaborated by World Bank and published yesterday, the country was 83rd out of 189 analyzed however, this is a deterioration because Costa Rica was ranked 78th in the previous year.

The most recent edition has methods that make it incomparable with the previous reports. However, yesterday’s ranking gave dates of this year and 2014 calculated with the new method.

According to the report, the calculating changes and the better performance of other countries made Costa Rica fall in the global ranking.

Doing Business is an indicator that measures how easy it is to do business in countries, and evaluates 189 countries.

In Latin America, Costa Rica was 9th in the quality of the business environment, the same place it had in 2014, according to the new methods of the report.

Costa Rica beat economies like Colombia, who was in 34th after gaining 19 places; Mexico gained 4 places and became 39th, and Chile became 41st after losing 2 positions.

Progress

The improvements of Costa Rica were concentrated in reducing the time to get electrical services and paying sales and corporation taxes.

In the first case, the coordination between state departments of suppliers of electricity made it so the country became 46th in the category.

On the issue of the payment of taxes, World Bank stressed that the country, with the implementation of electronic systems, was able to save the employers up to 60 hours a year.

The national average stayed at 163 hours a year, while in Latin America the average 365 hours.

“Now one can make the tax declaration and submit it online. Before, one had to drop it off at the bank. Also, one can pay taxes on the Bank’s internet page”, emphasized Fernando Rodriguez, Deputy Minister of Finance.

For Francisco Llobet, President of the Chamber of Commerce, despite advances, the country still has a lot to fix in the business environment.

“If there were countries in Latin America that advanced more than Costa Rica, it means that they did things better”, emphasized Llobet.

Wélmer Ramos, Minister of Economy, realized that legal changes are needed in order better the business environment, like reforming the Code of Commerce or approving a legislature on corporate insolvency.

Our thanks to our friends at La Nación – Costa Rica’s largest and most influential Spanish circulation newspaper for their permission to summarize their articles which originally appeared at: Costa Rica baja en índice de negocios, pese a la mejora de trámites.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.