The Department of Trade Industry of South Africa plans to unveil a new business portal by October 2019 to showcase business opportunities in the country. This was revealed by Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel, while responding to the questions from parliament members recently. The portal, he said, would significantly improve the ease of doing business in South Africa. The common business needs of starting an industry, such as getting company registration, domain name registration, B-BBEE certificate and SARS registration online on a real-time basis can be carried out online once the portal becomes operational. The portal also will be linked to other important official websites like Invest SA and the Compensation Fund in order to integrate these processes into a single online platform. This single window facility for businessmen and foreign investors is a step towards ease of doing business in South Africa. Importantly, South Africa is working towards attracting US$ 100 billion as FDI in a conceivably shorter time frame.
The immediate concern of South Africa is that its ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report has slipped from 32nd in 2009 to 82nd in 2019. Also, the preponderance of failures of public utilities and flight of foreign capital from its shores have created newer problems to the debt-ridden economy.
The minister explained that the country, in accordance with the World Bank’s parameters for measuring ease of doing business is prioritizing works in streamlining the process of enforcing of contracts; getting access to electricity; resolving insolvency; getting credit and protection of minority shareholders. An action plan for achieving these targets in the short, medium and long term has been drawn up. The Department of Trade and Industry along with National Treasury, the World Bank and the private sector are working to familiarize stakeholders with the parameters and to elicit their views and suggestions to effectively implement the project.
