The latest World Bank Doing Business report is not particularly flattering towards Trinidad and Tobago. The country slipped three places to 66th position overall in the 2014 ranking, mainly because of indicators such as the availability of credit information, administrative burden of paying taxes and dealing with construction permits, all of which dropped three or four points.
Other factors, however, improved in the Doing Business ranking, such as the ease of starting a business, which ranks better than it did in 2013, in 67th place up from 71st, helped by the reduction in the time it takes to open a business, from three days to one. Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of trade, industry and investment, Vasant Bharath, says of the work done to reduce bureaucracy: “We’re working hand in hand with the World Bank to ensure that we remove a lot of the bureaucratic obstacles. At the same time, we are putting in place the legislation that will allow [business] sectors to thrive once investors come in."
