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  • Liberia:  Nation Business Ranking Climbs High

    • Nation Business Ranking Climbs High
    • Recent World Bank’s “Doing Business Survey” has placed Liberia in the 35 position amongst 183 countries involved in providing starting up businesses for small and medium range entrepreneurs across the globe. Addressing journalists yesterday, November 16, 2011 at the head office of the National Investment Commission, NIC’s boss O. Natty B. Davis described the improvement of the country’s business sector as a welcoming development, something he said came because of a number of specific improvements carried out by the government of Liberia, including the NIC and its partners.

      According to NIC’s chairman Natty Davis, many Liberian small and medium range business people have been provided loans by various commercial banks for starting up businesses in order to stimulate the nation’s economy, an initiative he claimed has been ongoing well, making specific references to arrears that NIC has improved over the past few years. In the last few years, Chairman Davis informed newsmen that the NIC and its partners have managed to construct warehouses at various border points and other trade routes across the country, including the provision of training for business people and the improvement of custom activities at the border entries, something he said won the country its recent high ranking.

      According to the NIC’s boss, the intention of the loan, or credit scheme, is to create a middle class income society in the not too far distance future, and by doing so, he said, the government of Liberia has collaborated with banking institutions in the country to help empower small and medium range business entrepreneurs through lending out loans. Other achievements of the commission, he noted, is the streamlining of the business registration process, for instance, he indicated, is a major accomplishment, something he said was recently reflected in the latest edition of the World Bank’s internationally respected 2012 “Doing Business Survey.”

      “Liberia’s ranking improved by a noteworthy 29 places, from 64 in 2011 to 35 in 2012 in terms of ease of doing business. The introduction of the Liberian Business Registry played a pivotal role in the improved ranking, NIC’s Chairman, O. Natty B. Davis, disclosed. “Liberia also leap-frogged in terms of getting credit: Liberia’s ranking improved by 40 places, from 138 in 2011 to 98 in 2012. Liberia has been ranked among the ‘most-improved’ economies for entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The improvements were recorded in three arrears: starting a business, getting credit and crediting across borders,” Chairman Davis revealed further.The NIC boss said the commission conducted an assessment to ensure the development of a plan that will accurately reflect the Commission’s goals and priorities. He said the general idea behind such initiative was to ensure the restructuring of the NIC in a manner that, among things, would support the country’s concession negotiation process, and investment promotion efforts.

      International Organisations
      He said to that end, NIC was currently collaborating with technical experts from the Civil Service Agency, as well as several international agencies namely the International Finance Corporation, the Tony Blair Foundation, the Swedish Development Agency, the United Sates Agency for International Development, the Germany International Cooperation, including the Colombia University. He said each entity would be providing varying degrees of technical assistance ranging from training, capacity development, and equipment, amongst others.

      Meanwhile, the NIC has developed a new Investor’s Guide to Liberia. The latest edition of the Guide, according to Chairman Natty Davis, was produced in 2007-some four years ago. Both hard and electronic copies of the latest edition of the Investors’ Guide, he said, will be widely distributed in the coming weeks, and extended thanks and appreciation to BHP Billiton, who he said helped the commission, produced the Guide.
  • Tags:NIC., O. Natty B. Davis, Tony Blair.
  • Source:The Analyst

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