23171: durban: Article concerning Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>



SUBJECT:  Durban:  Breaking Poverty's Chains


To anyone trying to do business in Haiti, the amount of redtape
can be quite staggering.  Thus it was with some interest that I
noticed the British weekly, The Economist (Sept 11-17, pgs 11
and 71), reporting on a new World Bank study, "Doing Business in
2005".

The report claims that "poor countries frequently hurt
themselves by strangling business with red tape", and that
"countries with legal codes derived from France were among those
with the most red tape".  It goes on to point out that, "In
Haiti, for example, it takes 203 days to register a new company,
which is 201 days longer than in Australia."

The article provides a to-do list for growth, and suggests that
"the first step is to put aside ideology, from the left or the
right.  Development aid is beset by arguments over whether
improving the business climate or reducing poverty should be the
priority.  In most cases, that debate is phony:  the two goals
are the same.  Labour-market reform creates more jobs for the
excluded, typically women and the young.  Improving property
rights makes business more willing to invest."

Suffice it to say that all recent Haiti administrations have
concentrated on begging for aid, whether it was termed new
international loan guarantees, restitution and reparations, or
just simply foreign aid.  There might be a better way.

The Economist concludes by pointing out that "the World Bank
estimates that if a country in the worst regulated quartile were
to join the best quartile, it would boost its annual growth rate
by 2.2 percentage points.  In other words, there is more to gain
from slashing red tape than from begging for more aid".

Lance Durban