Panama

Ease of Doing Business in

Panama

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Panama. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

Region Latin America & Caribbean
Income Category Upper middle income
Population 3,571,185
GNI Per Capita (US$) 7,910
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
61 62 down 1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
63.0 62.8 down 0.2
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 23 26 up 3
Dealing with Construction Permits 73 78 up 5
Getting Electricity 16 15 up -1
Registering Property 107 121 up 14
Getting Credit 53 52 up -1
Protecting Investors 82 79 up -3
Paying Taxes 172 171 up -1
Trading Across Borders 9 10 up 1
Enforcing Contracts 125 123 up -2
Resolving Insolvency 110 111 up 1

Economy Profile

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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 23 DB 2012 Rank 26 Change in Rank up3
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 88.8 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 88.4 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up0.4
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 0.635,314
Indicator Panama Latin America & Caribbean OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

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Procedures (number)
6 9 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

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Time (days)
7 53 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

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Cost (% of income per capita)
8.8 33.7 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

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Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 3.7 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Hire a registered agent 1 day USD 200
2 Notarize articles of incorporation 1 day USD 75
3 Register at the Mercantile Division of the Public Registry and pay Annual Franchise Tax 2 days see comments
4 Obtain a notice of operation (“aviso de operación”) through the “Panama emprende” website 1 day USD 55 for legal entities
5 Register with municipality; get a “paz y salvo municipal” 1 day included in procedure 4
6 Request an employers’ inscription number from the Social Security Administration 1 day no charge

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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