Liberian delegation Returns from Mauritius, Shares Lessons Learned

MAURITIUS – Liberia, along with 14 other countries, successfully ended a week-long ‘Doing Business Reform in Africa Peer to Peer Learning Experience’ workshop in Mauritius from January 11-15.

The aim of the Peer to Peer Learning Experience was for participating countries to share their experiences as Africa’s leading reforming countries for the last 4 years running.

The five-day workshop also afforded participants the opportunity to share sound practices characterizing reforms that have been undertaken by countries in the region, and enhance reform capacity at the regional level.

The event was organized b by the Regional Multidisciplinary Center for Excellence (RMCE), with support from the World Bank Group.

In addition to Liberia, Zambia, Botswana, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde were also in attendance. Other countries included Ghana, Singapore, Uganda, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone and Malawi. Africa’s best reformer in the 2010 Doing Business survey, Rwanda was among African countries that shared their success stories to serve as an example and inspiration to upcoming economies. The takeaway was that implemented reforms make it easier, better and faster for a country to do business.

The Minister of State without Portfolio, Natty B. Davies, who was part of the five-man delegation from Liberia, made a presentation at the sharing experience event during which he noted that Liberia has an 85 percent of unemployment rate and a large informal sector. He also identified the large population of unskilled youths and outdated regulatory and legislative framework as some of the problems that Liberia is faced with. Davies pointed to an urgent need to attract quality foreign direct investment to promote the growth of Small Medium Enterprises (SME) in order to boost the economy and create jobs for the unemployed. He also addressed the need to ensure that economic growth benefits all Liberians and aligns regulatory and legislative framework with best practices.

The Director of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Abu Kamara, acknowledged that there were several lessons learnt from other African economies. He highlighted the fact that, in countries like Rwanda (Africa’s Top Reformer), Angola, Mauritius and neighboring Sierra Leone, their Presidents played leading individual roles to ensure that the reforms are successfully implemented in their countries.

“What they did was announce Special President Executive Orders” he added.

In Mauritius, for example, sole proprietorships (small businesses) do not pay registration and renewal fees. They only commit to paying required government taxes. Failure on the part of small businesses to pay government taxes then leads to wholesale entities denying them the sale of goods and services. In Sierra Leone, the Government recently created the Business Registry as an autonomous agency responsible for all business registration, while construction permits that were handled by the Public Works Ministry are now being handled by the Ministry of Labor.

Kamara pointed out that another lesson learned from the African Reform working group is the importance of Legislative Reform. He said Members of Parliament saw the need to expedite the passing and signing of most bills presented to them in order to achieve reforms in their countries. One salient point he made was that “other African Countries are not waiting for or making improvements only to affect their Doing Business rankings, but they are implementing those reforms that will make their countries a good places to do business”.

Presently, the investment law has been reviewed and is awaiting passage by the Liberian legislature. Now that lawmakers are back from their Agriculture Break, it is hoped that they will see the need to pass the investment law. The law seeks to bring Liberia in line with global best practices by providing protection for all investors.

The law will standardize government incentives for small and large, domestic or international expropriation, and make procedures predictable and transparent.

In 2009, through the streamlining of documents, cutting costs, and eliminating unnecessary processes, the Government of Liberia implemented 18 investment climate improvements in the following areas:

- Starting a Business
- Trading across Borders
- Construction Permits and
- Registering Property.

In that same year, Liberia ranked 149 out of 183 countries in the Doing Business 2010 report that was released in 2009. World Bank Country Manager, Ohene Owusu Nyanin, during the launching ceremony of the Doing Business 2010 survey at the World Bank Offices in Mamba Point, noted that “With a rank of 149, there are clearly opportunities for reform that persist in Liberia. As a global reformer, recognition tells that the Government of Liberia is taking action to improve the local regulatory environment to make it more conductive to doing business.”

The World Bank’s Doing Business ranking analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycles, including start-up and operations, cross-border trade, paying taxes and closing a business. The Doing Business survey does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level or the strength of financial systems.

It is expected that the Liberian delegation will now meet and review the lessons learnt from the reform experience sharing experience event in Mauritius and adopt those best practices that are workable for Liberia.