Doing Business in Colombia 2010
Doing Business in Colombia 2010, the second subnational report of the Doing Business series in Colombia, compares business regulations across 21 cities. The report focuses on local and national regulations that affect six stages in the life of a small- to medium-size domestic firm: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, paying taxes, trading across borders, and enforcing contracts.
The report finds widespread reforms across Colombia -- each of the 13 cities previously benchmarked showed improvements in at least one of the areas measured. The report also identifies differences in local regulations and in the enforcement of national regulations that can enhance or constraint local business activity. It suggests that cities in Colombia can learn from each other and adopt good practices that are already working elsewhere in the country. A hypothetical Colombian city that adopted all the best practices identified in this report would rank 17th of 183 countries globally -- 20 places ahead of Colombia’s position in the global Doing Business 2010 report.
Doing Business in Colombia 2010 was produced by the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank Group in collaboration with the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness of Universidad de los Andes, with the support of the Private Competitiveness Council. The project was funded by the National Planning Department, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism, the Colombian Confederation of Chambers of Commerce (Confecámaras), the United States Agency for International Development, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank Group.Main Findings:
- Doing business is easiest in Manizales, Ibagué and Pereira, and more difficult in Cali and Cartagena.
- Neiva made the most progress since 2008. After eliminating 11 procedures to start a business and two procedures to register property, it jumped from the bottom position to rank 11 out of 21 cities.
- The one-stop shop to start a business now operates in 16 of the 21 cities measured. The six cities that introduced the one-stop shop after July 2007 cut the number of procedures on average by 5 compared to the previous report.
- 11 of the 13 cities showed improvements in property registration. In Medellín, the municipal government combined two certificates into one.
- Tax administration reforms are also taking place at the municipal level. Bucaramanga revised and unified its tax code to provide clear and concise information regarding the number of yearly payments, tax rates and payment options. Manizales and Medellin revised their municipal tax codes.
- Reforms in custom administration have helped reduce the amount of time it takes to prepare documentation by over 60% for exports and 40% for imports compared to the previous report.
- Colombia has taken measures to address the backlog in civil municipal courts. The most important result was the dismissal of 12.2% of inactive claims in civil courts thanks to the application of Law 1194 of 2008 (Ley de Desistimiento Tácito).
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