Mauritius moves up to 13th in the worldwide ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking

Mauritius has moved up from 20th to 13th out of 190 countries worldwide in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Report, released in October – its best performance since its first inclusion in the report in 2006. Mauritius was ranked in 49th position globally as recently as 2016.

Mauritius was ranked first among African countries, ahead of Rwanda (38th) and Kenya (56th) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and second in the global ‘upper middle-income’ category, just after Malaysia and with the same score.

This recognition by the World Bank reaffirms the competitiveness of Mauritius as a jurisdiction conducive to do business and is testimony to the efforts and commitment of government to modernise the economy through structural reforms.

Significant reforms have included the automation of public services, reviewing of licensing procedures and regulatory amendments through the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2017 and the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2019 in line with international best practices.

The index measures the ease of doing business against 10 different indicators including paying taxes, starting a business, enforcing contracts, registering property and accessing credit. The World Bank recognised improvements in seven of these indicators for Mauritius. Mauritius is now ranked among the top 10 countries in the ‘Paying Taxes’ and ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’ indicators.

Mauritius’ rise in the ranking is linked to consistent reforms over the years: since 2005, the time needed to register property has dropped more than 12-fold, while time needed for business incorporation has also dropped nearly 10 times.

The country’s overall ease of doing business score has now increased to 81.5, narrowing the gap with the benchmark, which is New Zealand on 86.8. The report also confirms the position of Mauritius in

Both Togo and Nigeria were named in the top ten ‘most improved’ countries. Nations in the Middle East and North African region were among the strongest in ushering in business-friendly reforms but remain among the most difficult locations for gaining access to credit.

“An entrepreneur’s experience differs wildly in high and low-performing economies,” the World Bank said. “For example, it takes nearly six times as long, on average, to start a business in the economies ranked in the bottom 50 than in economies ranked in the top 20. Transferring property in the 20 top economies requires less than two weeks, compared to three months in the bottom 50.”