The World Bank has published its most recent Doing Business 2015 study for over 200 economies in the world ranking them by such factors as ease of Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction permits, Getting Electricity, Enforcing Contracts, Getting Credit, Registering Property, Protecting Minority Investors, Paying Taxes, Trading Across Borders and Resolving Insolvency.

According to the study, Haiti did not show significant improvements in the business climate from last year. It ranks 180th out of 189 researched economies, and improved its ranking by 1 position in the current year.

The best Caribbean country for ease of doing business is Jamaica - 58th position. The Dominican Republic ranked 84th.

Haiti's best ranking is for Enforcing Contracts - 89th, and Getting Electricity - 94th.
Its main issues are related to Starting a Business (ranked 188th), Protecting Minority Investors (ranked 187th), and Resolving Insolvency (ranked 189th).

Starting a business - a long and expensive process

Based on the study it takes 12 procedures and 97 days to register a business in Haiti, compared to 30 days, which is the average time in the region.

The cost to register a business is 247% of Haiti's income per capita.

Dealing with Construction Permits - relatively quick but very expensive

It takes 8 procedures and 71 days to obtain a construction permit in Haiti. These are good indicators comparing to other countries. The regional average is 13 procedures and 178 days.
However, the cost for obtaining construction permits is high: 16.4% of the warehouse value comparing to 2.7% regional average cost.

Getting Electricity - extremely costly for an average income

It takes 4 procedures and 60 days to get electricity in Haiti, compared to 6 procedures and 67 days on average in the Caribbean. However, the cost of getting electricity is exorbitant: 3,500% of income per capita. The regional cost is 445% of income per capita.

Paying Taxes - less than the regional average

Businesses have to make 47 payments a year, much more than the regional average of 30 payments.

The Profit tax in Haiti is 23.8%, the Labor tax and contributions is 12.4%, other taxes - 4.1%. The total tax rate is 40.3% from the profit, which is lower that the total tax in other Caribbean countries which averages at 48.3%.

Trading across borders

It costs $1,200 to export a container from Haiti and $1,555 to import one. This is about $100 less than the regional costs.

However, it takes more paperwork (8 documents for export and 9 for import)and more time (28 and 26 days respectively) for international trading compared to the regional average of 6-7 documents and 17-19 days.