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Cape Town - It is becoming more difficult to do business in South Africa if one looks at the World Bank's latest annual competitiveness survey released on Tuesday.
On the 2013 list SA ranks 41st out of 189 countries for ease of doing business. In 2012 it was in position 35.
According to the report it takes 19 days on average to get a business up and running, which places South Africa 64th on the list.
At 150th South Africa fared amongst the worst for supplying electricity as it takes businesses 226 days on average to get electricity.
More hurdles include ease of trading accross borders (106th), ease of registering a property (99th) and for enforcing contracts (80th).
On the other hand, its easy to get credit in South Africa (28th).
Singapore and Hong Kong rank as the world's best places to run a business, while mainland China remains far down the list.
As was the case last year, New Zealand, the US and Denmark rounded out the top five.
The five worst ranked countries are the Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic and Chad.
Rwanda noticed
But a rising African country, Rwanda, took honours as the most improved since 2005, praised for its efforts to boost property registration and for simplifying trading and tax procedures.
China, which was furious to receive a ranking of 91 last year and has pressured the World Bank to drop the 11-year-old study, fell five notches this year to 96th place and was leapfrogged by Russia.
The "Doing Business 2014" report said many countries are making it easier for people to start and run a local business, with low-income economies moving more quickly than larger ones to improve.
"Regulation is a reality from the beginning of a firm's life to the end," the report says. "Navigating it can be complex and costly."
But in many areas, it added, "there has been remarkable progress in removing some of the biggest bureaucratic obstacles to private sector activity".
The rankings focus on what a small or medium-sized business faces in its home country, as opposed to how a multinational giant would fare in the same environment.
Countries credited with progressing the most in the past five years include Rwanda (ranked 32), Russia (92), Ukraine (112) and the Philippines (108).
Russia and Rwanda both jumped 20 places from last year, Ukraine gained 25 and the Philippines 30 places.
China scored particularly poorly on the challenges of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, making tax payments and protecting investors.
Even in trade, the mainstay of the world's second largest economy, it ranked only 74 on the list.
On the 2013 list SA ranks 41st out of 189 countries for ease of doing business. In 2012 it was in position 35.
According to the report it takes 19 days on average to get a business up and running, which places South Africa 64th on the list.
At 150th South Africa fared amongst the worst for supplying electricity as it takes businesses 226 days on average to get electricity.
More hurdles include ease of trading accross borders (106th), ease of registering a property (99th) and for enforcing contracts (80th).
On the other hand, its easy to get credit in South Africa (28th).
Singapore and Hong Kong rank as the world's best places to run a business, while mainland China remains far down the list.
As was the case last year, New Zealand, the US and Denmark rounded out the top five.
The five worst ranked countries are the Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic and Chad.
Rwanda noticed
But a rising African country, Rwanda, took honours as the most improved since 2005, praised for its efforts to boost property registration and for simplifying trading and tax procedures.
China, which was furious to receive a ranking of 91 last year and has pressured the World Bank to drop the 11-year-old study, fell five notches this year to 96th place and was leapfrogged by Russia.
The "Doing Business 2014" report said many countries are making it easier for people to start and run a local business, with low-income economies moving more quickly than larger ones to improve.
"Regulation is a reality from the beginning of a firm's life to the end," the report says. "Navigating it can be complex and costly."
But in many areas, it added, "there has been remarkable progress in removing some of the biggest bureaucratic obstacles to private sector activity".
The rankings focus on what a small or medium-sized business faces in its home country, as opposed to how a multinational giant would fare in the same environment.
Countries credited with progressing the most in the past five years include Rwanda (ranked 32), Russia (92), Ukraine (112) and the Philippines (108).
Russia and Rwanda both jumped 20 places from last year, Ukraine gained 25 and the Philippines 30 places.
China scored particularly poorly on the challenges of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, making tax payments and protecting investors.
Even in trade, the mainstay of the world's second largest economy, it ranked only 74 on the list.
