Doing business 2013 : Equatorial Guinea - smarter regulations for small and medium-size enterprises : comparing business regulations for domestic firms in 185 economies

 73910 Economy Profile: Equatorial Guinea  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 2 © 2013 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved. 1 2 3 4 15 14 13 12 A copublication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of the content contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. 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Cover design: Corporate Visions, Inc.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 14 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 24 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 33 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 40 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 49 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 56 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 65 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 73 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 82 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 93 Employing workers .................................................................................................................... 99 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 106 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 111  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 4 INTRODUCTION Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to period January–December 2011). medium-size business when complying with relevant The Doing Business methodology has limitations. Other regulations. It measures and tracks changes in areas important to business—such as an economy‘s regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a proximity to large markets, the quality of its business: starting a business, dealing with construction infrastructure services (other than those related to permits, getting electricity, registering property, trading across borders and getting electricity), the getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, security of property from theft and looting, the trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving transparency of government procurement, insolvency and employing workers. macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents of institutions—are not directly studied by Doing quantitative indicators on business regulations and the Business. The indicators refer to a specific type of protection of property rights that can be compared business, generally a local limited liability company across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, operating in the largest business city. Because over time. The data set covers 46 economies in Sub- standard assumptions are used in the data collection, Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, comparisons and benchmarks are valid across 24 in East Asia and the Pacific, 24 in Eastern Europe economies. The data not only highlight the extent of and Central Asia, 19 in the Middle East and North obstacles to doing business; they also help identify the Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high- source of those obstacles, supporting policy makers in income economies. The indicators are used to analyze designing regulatory reform. economic outcomes and identify what reforms have More information is available in the full report. Doing worked, where and why. Business 2013 presents the indicators, analyzes their This economy profile presents the Doing Business relationship with economic outcomes and presents indicators for Equatorial Guinea. To allow useful business regulatory reforms. The data, along with comparison, it also provides data for other selected information on ordering Doing Business 2013, are economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. available on the Doing Business website at The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2012 http://www.doingbusiness.org.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 5 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers trying to improve their economy‘s regulatory environment for business, a good place to ECONOMY OVERVIEW start is to find out how it compares with the regulatory environment in other economies. Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking on the ease of doing Region: Sub-Saharan Africa business based on indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to Income category: High income medium-size businesses through their life cycle. Economies are ranked from 1 to 185 by the ease of Population: 720,213 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 14,540 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2013: starting a business, DB2013 rank: 162 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2012 rank: 159* investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Change in rank: -3 enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators (see * DB2012 ranking shown is not last year‘s published the data notes for more details). The employing workers ranking but a comparable ranking for DB2012 that indicators are not included in this year‘s aggregate ease captures the effects of such factors as data of doing business ranking, but the data are presented corrections and the addition of 2 economies in this year‘s economy profile. (Barbados and Malta) to the sample this year. See the data notes for sources and definitions. The aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business benchmarks each economy‘s performance on the indicators against that of all other economies in the Doing Business sample (figure 1.1). While this ranking tells much about the business environment in an economy, it does not tell the whole story. The ranking on the ease of doing business, and the underlying indicators, do not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors or that affect the competitiveness of the economy. Still, a high ranking does mean that the government has created a regulatory environment conducive to operating a business.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 6 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.1 Where economies stand in the global ranking on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 7 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers, knowing where their economy relative to the regional average (figure 1.2). The stands in the aggregate ranking on the ease of economy‘s rankings on the topics included in the doing business is useful. Also useful is to know how ease of doing business index provide another it ranks relative to comparator economies and perspective (figure 1.3). Figure 1.2 How Equatorial Guinea and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How Equatorial Guinea ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 9 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Just as the overall ranking on the ease of doing business year Doing Business introduced the distance to frontier tells only part of the story, so do changes in that ranking. measure. This measure shows how far each economy is Yearly movements in rankings can provide some indication from the best performance achieved by any economy since of changes in an economy‘s regulatory environment for 2005 on each indicator in 9 Doing Business indicator sets. firms, but they are always relative. An economy‘s ranking Comparing the measure for an economy at 2 points in might change because of developments in other time allows users to assess how much the economy‘s economies. An economy that implemented business regulatory environment as measured by Doing Business regulation reforms may fail to rise in the rankings (or may has changed over time—how far it has moved toward (or even drop) if it is passed by others whose business away from) the most efficient practices and strongest regulation reforms had a more significant impact as regulations in areas covered by Doing Business (figure 1.4). measured by Doing Business. The results may show that the pace of change varies widely Moreover, year-to-year changes in the overall rankings do across the areas measured. They also may show that an not reflect how the business regulatory environment in an economy is relatively close to the frontier in some areas economy has changed over time—or how it has changed and relatively far from it in others. in different areas. To aid in assessing such changes, last Figure 1.4 How far has Equatorial Guinea come in the areas measured by Doing Business? Note: The distance to frontier measure shows how far on average an economy is from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the best performance (the frontier). The overall distance to frontier is the average of the distance to frontier in the 9 indicator sets shown in the figure. See the data notes for more details on the distance to frontier measure. Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 10 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT The absolute values of the indicators tell another part business regulation—such as a regulatory process that of the story (table 1.1). The indicators, on their own or can be completed with a small number of procedures in comparison with the indicators of a good practice in a few days and at a low cost. Comparison of the economy or those of comparator economies in the economy‘s indicators today with those in the previous region, may reveal bottlenecks reflected in large year may show where substantial bottlenecks persist— numbers of procedures, long delays or high costs. Or and where they are diminishing. they may reveal unexpected strengths in an area of Table 1.1 Summary of Doing Business indicators for Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea DB2013 Equatorial Guinea DB2012 Central African Republic Best performer globally Congo, Rep. DB2013 Cameroon DB2013 Indicator Congo, Dem. Rep. Gabon DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Starting a Business (rank) 182 180 125 170 149 180 157 New Zealand (1) Procedures (number) 18 18 5 8 10 11 9 New Zealand (1)* Time (days) 135 135 15 22 58 161 58 New Zealand (1) Cost (% of income per 98.2 99.1 35.8 172.6 284.7 55.3 14.5 Slovenia (0.0) capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% of 11.7 14.6 168.3 444.1 0.0 80.5 22.3 91 Economies (0.0)* income per capita) Dealing with Construction Hong Kong SAR, China 107 103 95 147 81 149 110 Permits (rank) (1) Hong Kong SAR, China Procedures (number) 15 15 11 18 11 14 13 (6)* Time (days) 166 166 147 203 117 201 243 Singapore (26) Cost (% of income per 120.4 150.6 1,008.7 194.0 1,582.7 1,151.4 79.3 Qatar (1.1) capita)  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 11 Equatorial Guinea DB2013 Equatorial Guinea DB2012 Central African Republic Best performer globally Congo, Rep. DB2013 Cameroon DB2013 Congo, Dem. Rep. Indicator Gabon DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Getting Electricity (rank) 86 87 63 173 140 170 135 Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 5 5 4 7 6 6 6 Germany (3)* Time (days) 106 106 64 102 58 135 141 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 456.5 571.1 1,772.8 12,603.6 27,211.6 4,775.3 354.2 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 103 102 158 132 106 156 170 Georgia (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 6 6 5 5 6 6 7 Georgia (1)* Time (days) 23 23 93 75 47 55 104 Portugal (1) Cost (% of property value) 12.5 12.5 19.1 11.0 6.7 21.3 10.5 Belarus (0.0)* Getting Credit (rank) 104 97 104 104 176 104 104 United Kingdom (1)* Strength of legal rights 6 6 6 6 3 6 6 Malaysia (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 United Kingdom (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 3.9 2.9 9.1 2.4 0.0 8.3 53.8 Portugal (90.7) (% of adults) Private bureau coverage United Kingdom 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 (% of adults) (100.0)* Protecting Investors 150 147 128 139 158 158 158 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure index Hong Kong SAR, China 6 6 6 6 3 6 6 (0-10) (10)*  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 12 Equatorial Guinea DB2013 Equatorial Guinea DB2012 Central African Republic Best performer globally Congo, Rep. DB2013 Cameroon DB2013 Congo, Dem. Rep. Indicator Gabon DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Extent of director liability 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 Singapore (9)* index (0-10) Ease of shareholder suits 4 4 6 5 4 3 3 New Zealand (10)* index (0-10) Strength of investor 3.7 3.7 4.3 4.0 3.3 3.3 3.3 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) United Arab Emirates Paying Taxes (rank) 173 169 176 181 171 182 146 (1) Payments (number per Hong Kong SAR, China 46 46 44 55 32 61 26 year) (3)* United Arab Emirates Time (hours per year) 492 492 654 504 336 606 488 (12) Trading Across Borders 136 137 157 182 170 181 135 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 7 7 11 9 8 11 7 France (2) (number) Time to export (days) 29 29 23 54 44 50 20 Singapore (5)* Cost to export (US$ per 1,390 1,411 1,379 5,491 3,155 3,818 1,945 Malaysia (435) container) Documents to import 7 7 12 17 9 10 8 France (2) (number) Time to import (days) 44 44 25 62 63 62 22 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 1,600 1,639 2,167 5,554 3,435 7,709 1,955 Malaysia (420) container) Enforcing Contracts (rank) 61 59 172 177 173 162 153 Luxembourg (1)  Doing Business 2013 Equatorial Guinea 13 Equatorial Guinea DB2013 Equatorial Guinea DB2012 Central African Republic Best performer globally Congo, Rep. DB2013 Cameroon DB2013 Congo, Dem. Rep. Indicator Gabon DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Time (days) 475 475 800 660 610 560 1,070 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 18.5 18.5 46.6 82.0 147.6 53.2 34.3 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 40 40 42 43 43 44 38 Ireland (21)* Resolving Insolvency 185 185 150 185 168 136 145 Japan (1) (rank) no no Time (years) 3.2 4.8 5.2 3.3 5.0 Ireland (0.4) practice practice no no Cost (% of estate) 34 76 29 25 15 Singapore (1)* practice practice Outcome (0 as piecemeal no sale and 1 as going 0 0 0 0 0 practice concern) Recovery rate (cents on 0.0 0.0 13.6 0.0 1.6 17.8 15.2 Japan (92.8) the dollar) Note: DB2012 rankings shown are not last year‘s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2012 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 2 economies (Barbados and Malta) to the sample this year. The ranking methodology for the paying taxes indicators changed in Doing Business 2013; see the data notes for details. For more information on “no practice