Out of 183 economies (countries), the World Bank (www.worldbank.org) co-published with the International Finance Corporation (www.ifc.org) the document: “Comparing Business Regulation in 183 countries” for 2011. Bolivia results’ follow:

Bolivia certainly has room for improvement, we went down a place since last year’s. From Andres Oppenheimer’s article, an excerpt follows:

“According to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2011” report, it takes six days and six legal procedures to start a business in the United States, compared with 47 days and 10 legal procedures in Spain, 147 days and 17 legal procedures in Venezuela, 120 days and 15 legal procedures in Brazil, 26 days and 14 legal procedures in Argentina, and nine days and six legal procedures in Mexico.” [Bolivia, 50 days and 15 legal procedures]

“When it comes to how easy it is to get credit to start a business, the United States ranks 6th in the world, Peru 15th, Spain and Mexico 46th, Argentina 65th, Chile 72nd and Venezuela 176th, the report says.” [Bolivia 116]

“Regarding intellectual protection for patents — or keeping others from stealing your invention — the United States ranks 5th in the world, Peru 20th, Chile 28th, Mexico 44th, Brazil 74th, Spain 93rd, Argentina 109th, and Venezuela 179th, the study says.” [Bolivia 139]

I would add that regarding Bolivia, we also need to review seriously “trading across borders,” we rank 125. Considering our land-locked constraint and being in the middle of South America, this is something we MUST improve. We are also way behind in “enforcing contracts” where we rank 136; not only current government’s attacks to private investment hurt us but also the capacity to offer assurance to foreign and local investment.

To read the whole article, go to this link:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/08/2443750/steve-jobs-may-have-failed-abroad.html#ixzz1aUXf44Ik

For those of you interested in “Doing Business”, important web links follow:

Business Planet: Interactive map on the ease of doing business http://rru.worldbank.org/businessplanet

Rankings: How economies rank – from 1 to 183 http://www.doingbusiness.org/Rankings

Subnational and regional projects: Differences in business regulations at the subnational and regional level http://www.doingbusiness.org/Subnational-Reports

Download reports: Access to Doing Business reports as well as subnational and regional reports, reform case studies and customized country and regional profiles http://doingbusiness.org/Reports