After eight consecutive years of Leonel Fernandez administration, the Dominican Republic is positioned in the bottom half of the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. The low ranking reflects the fact that the regulatory environment is not the most conducive to starting and operating a company. The index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 topics, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all 185 economies are benchmarked to June 2012.
The Dominican Republic, positioned in the upper middle income with a population of 10,056,181 million and US$5,240 GNI per capita, is ranked 116th of 185 economies by the World Bank’s Doing Business 2013, which is down from 113 in 2012 report. The Dominican Republic’s scores declined in the categories of dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes and enforcing contracts.
The DR is rated above average in the category of trading across borders in a 46th ranking. The DR has free trade agreements with Europe and several countries in Africa and the Pacific, the United States, Central America and the Caribbean. It also positions the DR in the upper half with 83 in Getting Credit, reflecting the strong banking institutions, and 84th in Enforcing Contracts, reflecting judicial security.
The Dominican Republic ranked:
Ease of Doing Business (116)
Starting a Business (137)
Dealing with Construction Permits (108)
Getting Electricity (122)
Registering Property (110)
Getting Credit (83)
Protecting Investors (100)
Paying Taxes (98)
Trading Across Borders (46)
Enforcing Contracts (84)
Resolving Insolvency (156)
The Medina government has proposed to increase taxation, further burdening the business sector in order to maintain high levels of government spending. In its most recent Global Competitiveness Report, the 2012 World Economic Forum ranked the Dominican Republic the leader in wasteful government spending.
www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/dominican-republic
www.doingbusiness.org/rankings