The Bahamas is standing still and allowing rival jurisdictions to “leapfrog” it on economic competitiveness, the Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive warned Tuesday, after this nation slipped another six spots to 77th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.
Winston Rolle said the 2013 rankings, released Tuesday, showed the Bahamas “needs to be paying a lot more attention” to key processes and areas that attracted both international and domestic investment, this nation having fallen in a number of key categories.
The Bahamas suffered the biggest ranking decline when it came to ‘the ease’ of starting a business, falling from 74th to 82nd in the world. It also fell five places – from 63rd to 68th – on the issue of obtaining construction permits.
The report, produced jointly by the World Bank and its International Finance Corporation (IFC) arm, also dropped the Bahamas three places when it came to obtaining credit and protecting investors, placing this nation 83rd and 117th, respectively.
