Jamaica Ranks in Top Ten Most Improved Economies Worldwide

The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2016 has ranked Jamaica’s economy in the top ten most improved economies worldwide. Jamaica has also improved its ranking in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.

This movement is attributed to Jamaica’s implementation of four major reforms over the past year. These reforms include ease of paying taxes with the introduction of the online system – RAiS; the introduction of Employment Tax Credit, increasing depreciation rate for industrial buildings and making insolvency proceedings easier by establishing an Insolvency office to facilitate general administration.

Jamaica also excelled in the areas of Getting Credit and in Starting a Business, where now incorporating a business takes a minimum of three days and two interactions with government agencies.

The 2016 Doing Business Report also highlighted Jamaica as being one of two countries in the Caribbean that have made tax compliance easier for businesses.

Galina Sotirova, Country Manager for Jamaica congratulated the Government for its achievement of being placed among the top 10 most improved economies worldwide for doing business as reflected in the Doing Business Report for 2016.

In welcoming the report of Jamaica’s rank among the most improved economies worldwide, the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. the Honourable Peter Phillips said that it is abundantly clear that the benefits of adhering to the Economic Reform Programme (ERP) is showing results. He also emphasized that “the improved ranking will facilitate greater inflows of investment which is critical to the country’s future development.”

This year, the World Bank used a new methodology to rank economies, and have made adjustments to previous rankings. Due to the change in the methodology, 2016 rankings cannot be directly compared with those for 2015. These changes include additional measurements of the quality of regulation in four of the 10 topics covered: registering property, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity and enforcing contracts.

The trading across borders indicator has also been updated to consider regional trade and other elements of policy relevance to governments

According to the new methodology, Ms. Sotirova pointed out that Jamaica was ranked 64 for 2016 and comparatively 71 in 2015, (back calculation based on new methodology), a jump in 7 places comes as a result of key reforms in the past year.

The Government of Jamaica welcomes the improved ranking as confirmation that the Economic Reform Programme (ERP) is working. The Government remains steadfast in its commitment to the ERP as a key contributor to bring about sustainable growth and job creation for the Jamaican economy.