Haiti retains the 177th position out of 189 studied economies in the “Doing Business 2014” report elaborated by the World Bank. Best in the region by position are: Puerto Rico (US) - 40th; Mexico - 53rd; Jamaica - 94th; Guyana - 115th, and Dominican Republic - 117th.

Haiti lost 4 positions in the Dealing with Construction Permits ranking, and gained 4 in the ease of Getting Electricity index. It also lost a few positions in "Getting Credit" (-3), "Protecting investors" (-1), "Paying taxes"(-4), and "Enforcing Contracts" (-1) procedures.

It ranked best in the ease of "Getting Electricity" - 67th position, and "Enforcing Contracts" - 96th position out of the 189 economies.

Starting a Business

According to the study, one of Haiti's main gaps in doing business lies with the process of Starting a Business (ranked 187th). It takes 12 procedures, 97 days, and it costs 265% of income per capita in comparison to the average for the region, which is 9 procedures, 36 days, and costs 33% of the income per capita. 

The report shows that no reforms, as measured by Doing Business, has been made in the last 3 years to ease the starting a business procedures. The last reform was captured by Doing Business 2011 when Haiti eased business start-up by eliminating the review by the president's or the prime minister's office of the incorporation act submitted for publication.

In the region, it's easiest to start a business in Puerto Rico (U.S.) - ranked 18th in the world, and Jamaica ranked 23rd.

Getting Electricity

Ease of Getting Electricity is Haiti's best indicator - ranked 67th, although it's very expensive. It takes 4 procedures, only 60 days, better than the regional average of 6 procedures and 65 days; however, the cost of getting electricity is exorbitant for the local population - 3,800% of income per capita. The average regional cost makes up 500% of income per capita.

The cost of getting electricity in Haiti is split between the 4 procedures.

1. The client hires a private contractor who applies for electricity connection with Electricité d'Haïti (EDH) on their behalf, and client awaits estimate of connection fees. This service takes 10 days and costs USD 375.

2. The client obtains external inspection by Electricité d'Haïti (EDH), which takes 1 day and costs 656,470 Gourdes.

3. The client obtains external works from private contractor (including right of way). This takes 30 days and costs USD 7,500.

4. The client requests installation of metering system and final connection from Electricité d'Haïti (EDH), which takes 20 days and costs 250,000 Gourdes.

Paying Taxes

When it comes to the "Paying Taxes" indicator Haiti ranks 132nd. It's total tax rate per year represents 40.4% of profit, lower than the regional average of 47.3%. However, there are 47 payments a year compared to only 30 on average in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Doing Business study by the World Bank compares Business Regulations for local companies in 189 economies. It measures how easy or difficult it is for an entrepreneur to open and run a small or medium size business in a particular country or economy. It studies 11 areas of life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, and employing workers.