HILARY JOFFE: Obstacles to doing business stifle job creation and keep us poor
Our decline in the rankings is bad news for the drive to woo investors
In his February state of the nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that the World Bank's annual "doing business" index ranked SA 82nd out of 190 countries but announced that the government had set itself a target of being among the top 50 on the index within three years. He was referring to the government's push to remove constraints to doing business and attract new investment, in the context of the investment conferences he initiated last year. A team had been established, he said, to address the policy and regulatory barriers frustrating investors.
But when the World Bank released its new 2020 "doing business" index this week, it turned out that far from heading towards the top 50, SA's ranking has now fallen further, to 84th out of 190 countries...
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