Doing Business in South Africa 2015

Abstract

The Doing Business data highlight the important role of the government and government policies in the day-to-day life of domestic small and medium-size firms. The objective is to encourage regulations that are designed to be efficient, accessible to all who use them and simple in their implementation. Where regulation is burdensome and competition limited, success tends to depend on whom one knows. But where regulation is efficient, transparent and implemented in a simple way, it becomes easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to compete on an equal footing and to innovate and expand. In this sense Doing Business values good rules as a key to social inclusion. Enabling growth, and ensuring that all people, regardless of income level, can participate in its benefits, requires an environment where new entrants with drive and good ideas can get started in business and where good firms can invest and grow, thereby creating more jobs. Doing Business was designed with 2 main types of users in mind: policy makers and researchers. Doing Business is a tool that governments can use to design sound policies for the creation of firms and jobs. But this tool should not be used in isolation. Doing Business provides a rich opportunity for benchmarking by capturing key dimensions of regulatory regimes. Nevertheless, the Doing Business data are limited in scope and should be complemented with other sources of information.