_____ Administrative Barriers to Foreign FOREIGN Investment INVESTMENT ADVISORY Reducing Red Tape SERVICE in Africa 20746 by James J. Emery Melvin T. Spence, Jr. Louis T. Wells, Jr. Timothy S. Buehrer FIAS OCCASIONAL PAPERS 1 Wells, Jr. and Wint, Marketing a Country: Promotion as a Tool for Attracting Foreign Investment 2 Wells, Jr. and Wint, Facilitating Foreign Investment: Government Institutions to Screen, Monitor, and Service Investment from Abroad 3 Belot and Weigel, Programs in Industrial Countries to Promote Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries 4 Mintz and Tsiopoulos, Corporate Income Taxation and Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe 5 Sader, Privatizing Public Enterprises and Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Counties 6 Battat, Frank, and Shen, Suppliers to Multinationals: Linkage Programs to Enhance Local Companies in Developing Countries 7 Carter, Sader, and Holtedahl, Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Infrastructure 8 Megyery and Sader, Facilitating Foreign Participation in Privatization 9 Donaldson, Sader, and Wagle, Foreign Direct Investment in Infrastructure: The Challenge of Southern and Eastern Africa 10 Mischalet, Strategies of Multinationals and Competition for Foreign Direct Investment: The Opening of Central and Eastern Europe 1 1 Spar, Attracting High Technology Investment: Intel's Costa Rican Plant 12 Sader, Attracting Foreign Direct Investment Into Infrastructure: Why Is It So Difficult? 13 Wells, Jr. and Wint, Marketing a Country: Promotion as a Tool for Attracting Foreign Investment, Revised Edition 14 Emery, Spence, Jr., Wells, Jr., and Buehrer, Administrative Barriers to Foreign Investment: Reducing Red Tape in Africa * Administrative _ Barriers to Foreign FOREIGN Investment INVESTMENT ADVISORY Reducing Red Tape SERVICE in Africa OCCASIONAL by PAPER James J. Emery Melvin T. Spence, Jr. Louis T. Wells, Jr. Timothy S. Buehrer © 2000 The International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 12345030201 00 The International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank, promotes the economic development of its member countries through investment in the private sector. It is the world's largest multilateral organization providing financial assistance directly in the form of loans and equity to private enterprises in developing countries. The World Bank is a multilateral development institution whose purpose is to assist its developing member countries further their economic and social progress so that their people may live better and fuller lives. 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Permission to copy portions for classroom use is granted through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., Suite 910, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923, U.S.A. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for. Contents Figures and Tables vii Preface ix ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS TO INVESTMENT IN AFRICA 1 James J. Emery, Melvin T. Spence,Jr. Acknowledgments 2 Acronyms 2 Executive Summary 3 Methodology 5 Conclusion: The Red Tape Analysis 7 1. Introduction 9 Liberalization and Reform 10 The Lack of Investor Response 13 Administrative Barriers to Investment 15 The Analytical Approach 18 Antecedents 22 Administrative Constraints in Sub-Saharan Africa 24 iii iv / Contents 2. General Approvals, Licenses, and Registrations 27 Company Registration 28 Foreign Investment Registration 29 Access to Investment Incentives 31 Business Licenses 32 Expatriate Work and Residence Permits 33 Tax Registration and Administration 35 Other Licenses and Registrations 36 Conclusion 38 3. Specialized Approvals 41 Industry 42 Fisheries 44 Forestry 45 Tourism 48 Conclusion 52 4. Requirements to Gain Access to Land, Site Development, and Utility Connections 55 Access to Land 56 Construction Permits 57 Utilities 57 Postal Services 68 Conclusion 68 5. Operational Requirements 71 Import/Export Procedures 72 Foreign Exchange 73 Labor and Social Security 73 Conclusion 77 6. Conclusions 83 Origins of Excessive Red Tape 83 Recommendations 84 Conclusion 88 Notes 89 References 93 Contents / v CUTTING RED TAPE: LESSONS FROM A CASE-BASED APPROACH TO IMPROVING THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE IN MOZAMBIQUE 95 Louis T.Wells, Jr.,Timothy S. Buehrer Acknowledgment 96 Executive Summary 97 1. Introduction 101 Initial Steps 102 A Mega-Opportunity 105 2. The Proposed Aluminum Smelter 107 The Project 107 Stumbling Blocks 110 3. Moving toward Agreement 115 Creating a Structure 115 Concluding the Heads of Agreement 118 Negotiating the Subsidiary Agreements 123 Conduct of Meetings 124 4. Completing the Negotiations 127 Concluding the Investment Project Authorization (IPA) 127 Completing the Subsidiary Agreements 128 Preparing for Implementation 132 Lessons Learned 133 5. Implementing the Agreement: A Serious Attack on Red Tape 137 Building a Continuing Structure 137 The Government Task Group 138 The IPA Steering Committee 138 The Tasks Groups 141 The IPA Implementation Coordination Meeting at CPI 142 Local Government 142 Linkage Program 143 The Structure in Action 144 vi / Contents 6. What Was Accomplished? 147 The Impact on Mozal 147 The Impact on Future Investors 151 Benefits for Both Mega-Projects and Smaller Projects 153 7. Reproducing the Case-based Approach 161 What Are the Essential Characteristics? 161 Improving the Model 170 A Program for Reducing Red Tape 172 Appendixes 1. Mozambique:the Country 175 2. The Aluminum Smelting Process 179 3. Red-tape Study 181 Notes 187 Figures and Tables ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS TO INVESTMENT IN AFRICA Figures 1. Steps for a Foreign Manufacturing Operation in Uganda 20 2. Mozambique: Requirements for Obtaining a Construction Permit and Property Title 62 Tables 1. Licensing of Industrial Investment in Surveyed Countries 43 2. Licensing of Fishing Investment in Surveyed Countries 46 3. Licensing of Forestry Investment in Surveyed Countries 48 4. Licensing of Tourism Investment in Surveyed Countries 50 5. Land Access in Surveyed Countries 58 6. Construction Permits in Surveyed Countries 64 7. Obtaining Utilities in Surveyed Countries 66 8. Import/Export Procedures in Surveyed Countries 74 vii viii / Tables and Figures 9. Foreign Exchange Controls in Surveyed Countries 78 10. Labor and Social Security Procedures in Surveyed Countries 80 CUTTING RED TAPE: LESSONS FROM A CASE-BASED APPROACH TO IMPROVING THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE IN MOZAMBIQUE Figures 1. Coordinating Structure for Negotiations 116 2. Coordinating Structure for Implementation 139 3. Mozambique: Setting Up a New Company 182 4. Mozambique: Steps Required for a New Company 183 5. Mozambique: Steps for a Construction Permit and Property Title 184 6. Mozambique: Steps for Obtaining an Industrial License 186 Tables 1. Financing of Mozal 130 2. Growth of Foreign Investment since 1993 177 Preface For almost 15 years the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), a joint service of the International Finance Corpora- tion and the World Bank, has been helping governments in Africa to improve their environments for foreign direct investment (FDI). This advice has covered the basic rules governing FDI and the institutions that administer these rules. Many countries in Africa have been receptive to advice from FIAS and many other advisors, and have made substantial progress in improving the basic frame- work for FDI. Yet, despite these improvements, FDI flows to Africa have con- tinued to languish. In searching for the reasons for this stagnation FIAS and others have dug deeper into the investment environ- ment and have uncovered a maze of second-order administrative barriers to the implementation and operations of investments. These barriers can affect both domestic and foreign private investors but they may have a disproportionate impact on foreign investors who usually have higher visibility and who tend to adhere more strictly to legal requirements. The two papers in this volume provide an overview of administra- tive barriers in Africa, and a very in-depth look at how one country, ix x / Preface Mozambique, used a very large foreign investment as a mechanism to begin to tear them down. The first paper, co-authored by James Emery (a former FIAS staff member) is based on a series of country- specific studies on administrative barriers done by FIAS and the United States Agency for International Development. These studies covered Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and Uganda, and were completed in 1995-1997. Each country study relied on ex- tensive research in the countries, including review of primary mate- rials, laws, and regulations. References are not cited individually to the original source material or the country studies to avoid cumber- some and repetitive references to the same documents. Because the original research on which the country studies are based is dated, there may be some inaccuracies in terms of the specific situations presented. Since the studies were completed and workshops held to discuss them, many improvements have already been made to address the constraints summarized in this paper. In that sense the picture portrayed here is somewhat unfair to the countries concerned as, in each case, they have made concrete im- provements. Many areas remain untouched, however, and similar problems can be found in other countries, both within and out- side the region. Where major changes have resulted, this has been noted in the text. The final chapter takes stock of some of the reforms countries have undertaken in response to the representa- tion of unnecessary "red tape" in these analyses. The second paper, by Professor Louis Wells of the Harvard Busi- ness School, is a detailed look at how the administrative barriers that existed in Mozambique threatened to derail the huge Mozal alumi- num smelter that was proposed by South African investors. The size of the investment led the Government of Mozambique to find ways to deal with the administrative barriers. Not only were the barriers overcome for this special project but also the Government used the knowledge gained in the process to reduce barriers for all investors and establish institutions that could facilitate other investments. Per- haps most important, a cadre of bureaucrats emerged from the pro- cess with an appreciation of the damage that unnecessary red tape Preface / xi could do to the investment environment, and with a set of tools that could be used to facilitate fuiture investments. The message of both papers is that administrative barriers con- stitute a significant impediment to foreign direct investment in Africa. Moreover, many of the administrative procedures required of investors have no real justification. Nevertheless, removal of unnecessary barriers and streamlining other administrative proce- dures require very detailed efforts by governments involving the exercise of significant political leadership. An encouraging number of African governments are now engaged in this effort. DALE R. WEIGEL General Manager Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa James J. Emery Melvin T. Spence,Jr. Acknowledgments Financial support for the research and comparative data analysis in this report was provided by USAID through the Private Enterprise Development Support project. Robert Rauth carried out the first of the FIAS country studies discussed in this report, a study of Ghana. He was also the primary author of the subsequent studies of Namibia, Tanzania, and Uganda. His extensive knowledge of business conditions in African countries and his passion for details and facts, together with his understand- ing of the role of government agencies in creating the "playing field" for free enterprise, led him naturally to focus on the types of admin- istrative barriers to investment discussed in this paper. He devel- oped the approach examined here and became a powerful advocate for the importance of paying attention to the realities faced by pri- vate businesses, large and small, foreign and local. He was able to use this type of detailed information to press effectively for reforms at all levels, from revising fundamental legislation to setting up a customer service window for investors at the municipal government offices in Windhoek, Namibia. And he was able to be sharply critical of bureaucratic procedures and red tape while still retaining the re- spect of officials responsible for administering the systems. His un- timely death in 1997 has left all of those who worked with him and knew him with a sincere loss. His contributions to this work con- tinue to guide those who have followed in his steps. Acronyms CMA Common Monetary Area (southern Africa) FDI Foreign Direct Investment FIAS Foreign Investment Advisory Service LIBOR London Interbank Offered Rate PEC Public Employment Centers SACU South African Customs Union UEB Uganda Electricity Board USAID United States Agency for International Development 2 Executive Summary With the hope of promoting private sector development, coun- tries across sub-Saharan Africa have undertaken a sweeping change of policy in the past decade to liberalize and open their econo- mies. To varying degrees, attention has been focused on areas such as *C reating a stable macroeconomic environment; * Liberalizing controls on foreign exchange transactions; * Liberalizing price, licensing, and other controls on both do- mestic markets and international trade; * Rationalizing tax and tariff structures, including reduction of average rates; * Liberalizing investment laws and restrictions; and * Actively promoting foreign investment and exports. Despite these and other improvements, however, the formal in- vestment response in most countries has been disappointing. At the same time, micro and informal enterprises are not only failing to "graduate" to the formal sector, but are playing an increasingly im- portant commercial role. As a result, African governments are be- coming increasingly skeptical regarding the effectiveness of economic liberalization-particularly because many senior-level officials be- lieve that the reform process has been largely completed. 3 4 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa Even in countries that have addressed constraints to private in- vestment and exports, significant deterrents remain. In particular, countries with a long history of government intervention and ad- ministrative direction over economic decisions typically have com- plex, overlapping controls beyond those easily identified as constraints on investment or addressed at a macro level by the types of policy reforms mentioned above. The persistence of these "second-tier" administrative barriers to investment, combined with a lack of insti- tutional capacity in the government agencies responsible for them, often translates into a situation where these mere procedural tasks become major obstacles to investment. Such difficulties can often be overcome only after long delays or with extraordinary payments. This discourages investors, even many who may have made a pre- liminary decision to commit to a country. "One-stop shops," estab- lished by countries throughout Africa to streamline investment procedures, have also been a big disappointment: few have actually improved the situation and some have made it worse. The reality, then, is often far removed from the incantations of government of- ficials that they are now "open and friendly" to private investors. All too many developing countries still need more comprehensive re- form efforts, combined with radical overhauls of the way in which their government agencies operate. At an implementation level, many officials remain distrustful of private businesspeople, or at least view them simply as a source of supplemental income generation. Both views can mean the persis- tence of otherwise lower-level irritants to business formation and operation, a persistence that often magnifies the irritants to the point of constraints in an overall investment climate that remains hostile. In many cases the "old" attitudes still prevail among bu- reaucrats, who assert their authority through less direct controls, such as their ability to interrupt business operations for otherwise routine clearances, inspections, or verifications. In this environ- ment, existing private businesses commonly complain of adminis- trative "harassment." Executive Summary / 5 Methodology This paper draws on studies of administrative barriers to investment in five African countries that FIAS and USAID have studied: Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Following a similar methodology, the studies identified all the steps required to under- take an investment, from registering a company to starting opera- tions, in full compliance with existing laws and regulations.' This report presents an overview of the types of obstacles encountered and the resulting effects in terms of a negative impact on the invest- ment climate. These obstacles are grouped into four categories: 1. General approvals and licenses required of all firms, 2. Specialized or sectoral approvals required of firms in particu- lar sectors, 3. Requirements to gain access to land for business facilities, and 4. Licenses or other requirements once firms are operational. General Approvals, Licenses, and Registrations A number of steps are typically required of all firms trying to estab- lish a new business. In some countries, such as Mozambique, sim- ply registering a company can be a long and expensive process; in others, such as Uganda, it is theoretically easy, but outmoded legis- lation and a registrar general's office with no resources have made it unnecessarily cumbersome. The greatest obstacles and delays have occurred with countries that license investments and award fiscal incentives for qualifying firms (typically those in sectors viewed as development priorities). Here the need to prepare detailed feasibility studies and demonstrate project compliance with (often vague) eli- gibility criteria pose additional burdens on firms and frequently cause delays long exceeding legal time limits. Business licenses, often at a local level, are another source of delays and duplicative submission of company and project data. For foreign firms, special registration 6 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa requirements for foreign investors are common, and significant de- lays are encountered in securing work permits for investors and ex- patriate managers. Duplicative tax registration procedures are common as well. As a result, these initial hurdles can often take many months, or even a year in some countries for complex projects. Specialized Approvals An additional layer of government scrutiny and evaluation of projects is applied for certain sectors, of which this report addresses industry, fisheries, forestry, and tourism.2 Here, although conces- sion procedures are particularly non-transparent, the awarding of concessions is the primary policy tool for resource management. As a result, effective resource management policies are often un- dermined and optimum levels of investment and exploitation are usually not reached. Governments also extend sectoral regulation into many areas. They might prescribe management structures and qualifications requirements for tourism companies, for example, or limit foreign investment, often in contradiction with stated policy in other laws. Requirements to Gain Access to Land, Site Development, and Utility Connections It is when buying or leasing land, constructing facilities, and secur- ing utilities services that investors encounter the greatest delays. Undeveloped markets in private real estate mean that reliance on public sector land is virtually a necessity. Unfortunately, poor policy formulation, cumbersome and non-transparent procedures for mak- ing land available for commercial use, and tenure rights for informal occupants often make for a long and uncertain process for inves- tors. Before investors can develop land and construct commercial or industrial facilities, they must obtain a series of approvals and li- censes. Here again, significant delays can be encountered and the responsible authorities are often poorly equipped to evaluate pro- posed plans. Securing connections to utility services-power, water Executive Summary / 7 and sewer, and telephone-is also fraught with delays. New connec- tions may be impossible in some areas, or the cost of extension must be borne entirely by the investor. Due to a lack of new capacity, finding a fully serviced site in a desirable location can be quite diffi- cult; this was true across all the countries surveyed. These are significant, systemic problems stemming from years of neglect and mismanagement, and cannot be overcome easily. Al- though some countries are proceeding with privatization of utilities or private participation in infrastructure sectors, progress has been slow and concrete results have yet to be realized. Operational Requirements Once operational, companies face a different series of interactions with government agencies. These are typically regulations and con- trols on foreign trade, foreign exchange, and labor and social secu- rity. These areas are often the source of license or permit requirements that remain cumbersome in spite of overall liberalization. There is still progress to be made in adapting former control-oriented insti- tutions to a role of selective monitoring and enforcement. Conclusion: The Red Tape Analysis When added together, this whole maze of often duplicative, com- plex, and non-transparent procedures can mean delays of up to two years to get investments approved and operational. The red tape has its origins in outdated procedures, inappropriate policies, poor imple- mentation, and a lack of institutional capacity in government agen- cies. It is often reflected in the inability of organizations to implement fully their mandates and is typically circumvented, often with pay- ments, to ensure the compliance of government officials. Because barriers to investment cover a broad range of policy, ad- ministrative, and institutional areas, reducing or removing them can be a daunting task. Measures that have had some effect in the coun- tries analyzed here have included an open and frank discussion be- 8 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa tween public and private sectors, initiated by the presentation of the studies undertaken. Following this, support by donor agencies in the form of targeted technical assistance to agencies showing a par- ticular interest in reforms has proven useful. Ultimately, this external support may be combined with more substantial resources in a capacity-building effort. The latter can only be effective, however, once a change of attitude has occurred in the agency, a change that would include the introduction of a "customer service" ethic. Although tackling these barriers is diffi- cult, it can be done. In the countries studied, as well as in others, substantial improvements have been made in a relatively short time. Introduction Economic reforms, which have been carried out for more than a decade, have been supplemented by political changes with the aim of promoting a social dialogue, to create a lawful state with a plu- ralist democracy .... [Our country] is now a safe haven for inves- tors. . . . We have clearly opted for the promotion of a market economy based on a free-trade system, viewing the private sector as the driving force for economic growth.... In order to facilitate the creation of enterprises, the Government has set up a One-Stop- Shop system for the quick processing of dossiers to allow the cre- ation of an enterprise in 72 hours. -Investment promotion literature for an African country Productive investment levels in most African countries have re- mained depressed, and even where economic policy reform has been implemented, the investor response-both domestic and foreign- has been poor. -World Bank policy research paper I've been here for a year now getting a simple business started. At every turn, there is a new twist, a new person with his hand out for a payment, and a new requirement nobody told me about. It took me most of that time to get a site and get utility connections; I'm still waiting for a phone. There is always a law or a regulation that says something I'm doing is illegal, but I never find out about it until they show up at my door with a notice. -A foreign investor 9 10 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa These three quotations illustrate varying perspectives on the cli- mate for investment in sub-Saharan Africa. They could have come from virtually any of the countries in the region. Although at first they may seem conflicting, the three statements are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they point out what will be presented as the cen- tral theme of this paper: that although substantial liberalization and reforms have occurred in investment policy as well as other areas and although most countries now unabashedly promote themselves as investment sites, the reality facing investors on the ground is far different. The third quotation above-actually a composite from many interviews with investors in the region-illustrates the frus- tration many firms and entrepreneurs have felt when, having made an initial decision to invest in a country, they are faced with the many hurdles, delays, inadequate public services, and procedural requirements standing in the way of starting a business. Although this perspective alone cannot explain the "lack of investor response" that has characterized Africa and preoccupied analysts from devel- opment institutions, it certainly accounts for a great deal of what is wrong with investment climates in Africa. This paper examines administrative constraints to investment in a series of African countries, based on the experience of advisory projects undertaken in Ghana, Namibia, Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania.3 Liberalization and Reform Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the beginnings of an economic turnaround in the second half of the 1990s. Reversing a trend since the late 1970s, the region has realized positive real growth in GDP per capita over a sustained period from 1995 to 1997; excluding oil producers and South Africa, this trend continued into 1998. Most countries on the continent have substantially liberalized their econo- mies since the 1980s, the result being a greater reliance on (1) mar- ket mechanisms in lieu of direct state intervention and (2) the private sector as the engine for growth. This liberalization has in part been Introduction / 11 a response to pressure and assistance through adjustment lending from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). But it has also been a pragmatic response to worsening economic condi- tions, the obvious failures of most features of the statist model, and the need for drastic new measures to achieve economic progress. Broadly speaking, the objective of these reforms has been to pro- mote private sector development, attract new private investment, and restore economic growth. To varying degrees, these policy reforms have been focused on areas such as * Creating a stable macroeconomic environment by controlling public sector deficits, restraining money supply growth, and financ- ing deficits from capital markets or aid flows, all of which contribute to low inflation, stable exchange rates, and positive real interest rates in financial markets; * Freeing domestic markets by ending price controls, profit mar- gin ceilings, subsidies, and other market interventions that had dis- torted incentives for and returns to private firms; * Liberalizing controls onforeign exchange transactions by remov- ing administrative controls on current transactions, using market mechanisms to determine exchange rates, allowing foreign exchange accounts, and fostering the role of commercial banks and foreign exchange bureaus as the main market participants; * Liberalizing trade, including ending most import and export licensing, reducing and simplifying tariffs, refraining from the use of quotas and other non-tariff barriers, introducing export promo- tion schemes (e.g., duty remission, drawback, bonded warehouses, and export processing zones), and removing export taxes; * Rationalizing tax structures by reducing the highest marginal rates and expanding direct tax bases, introducing value-added taxes, and improving enforcement and administration; * Liberalizing private investment by reforming restrictive invest- ment legislation, opening sectors reserved for the state or nationals, removing advance approval requirements, guaranteeing equal treat- 12 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa ment for foreign investors, providing fiscal incentives for new in- vestment, signing bilateral investment treaties and multilateral con- ventions, establishing "one-stop approval centers," and establishing investment promotion organizations; and * Reforming the financial sector by removing controls on inter- est rates, ending directed lending, promoting trading in govern- ment debt instruments in secondary markets, establishing equity markets, and encouraging foreign portfolio investment. Because of these reforms, the climate for private investment and the general economic health of most African countries has greatly improved. However, reform implementation has been inconsistent and has not, in general, led to a resumption of the type of broad- based economic growth that both addresses poverty alleviation and provides an attraction for private investors. Certain reviews of the structural adjustment experience point out the need for deeper, broader reforms, stating in effect that the countries have not gone far enough.4 Other analyses have pointed to the need for (1) care- fully sequenced reforms introduced over a period of time and (2) a focus on institutional development to complement policy changes and ensure their effective implementation.5 Harsher critics of these reforms have decried their consequences in terms of a reduction in public spending, introduction of competition, exposure to global trade and financial "shocks," and the unquestioning promotion of private investment and market-oriented economic policies.6 Even in their partial effectiveness, these reforms have neverthe- less made a tremendous difference in restoring, or creating from ground zero, a business climate that is more attractive to private investors. Without the reforms there would have been a continua- tion of a small, closed private sector characterized by the type of protected, high-profit, short-term business ventures that depend on patronage and typify most unstable economies. In that environ- ment, if successful, businesses typically generated only capital flight rather than increased investment. Introduction / 13 Although the experience with implementation of these reforms has been uneven across Africa, in virtually every case-successful or not, they have been accompanied by earnest anticipation of dra- matically increased private investment flows. In some cases, reform programs were accompanied by investment promotion efforts aimed at foreign investors, nationals, and expatriate nationals. In general, these flows have not materialized. The Lack of Investor Response This lack of response by private investors to the more open (and, presumably, more attractive) environment has occasioned much de- bate. In response to the more open environment, many private busi- nessmen, foreign and domestic, began to make serious efforts at making their firms more competitive, after years of languishing (of- ten profitably) in protected markets. At the same time as they began to make these efforts, they were also subjected to increased compe- tition, primarily from imports and declining profitability. The risk environment changed and now called for a more challenging type of management and entrepreneurial skills that many firms did not possess. Businessmen successful in operating in protected environ- ments and profiting from rent seeking proved to be less skilled, and less interested, in competing in a more open marketplace. Nor have those flows come from new foreign investors. Sub-Sa- haran Africa remains marginal in terms of global investment flows, largely missing out on the tremendous expansion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries that has happened dur- ing the last decade. Although the absolute levels of foreign invest- ment have increased modestly, Africa's share of developing-country FDI inflows decreased to 3.8 percent in 1996, its lowest levels since the early 1980s.7 This meager performance is further tempered by the fact that FDI in Africa remains concentrated in resource extrac- tion industries, which are driven more by resource endowments, extraction costs, and world market oil and mineral prices than the 14 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa competitiveness of the local economy. Although some countries such as Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Uganda have seen higher flows of FDI outside the extractive sectors, these flows are still quite small by most absolute and relative measures. They do not approach the magnitudes of fast-growing countries in other regions where growth has been paced by FDI. The one area of the private sector that has undeniably flourished with liberalization is the informal sector. Here, fueled at least par- tially by trade liberalization and the easy availability of consumer goods at lower prices, small-scale traders and marginal service ven- dors have become one of the few dynamic forces adapting well to the new, more open market economies of Africa. Their formal-sec- tor competitors denounce the swelling ranks of street vendors, mar- ket stalls, kiosks, and small shops for not paying taxes and avoiding business regulation. However, against expectations, informal sector firms that prosper not only fail to graduate to the formal sector but seem to encourage more entrants in their wake. And yet, the prolif- eration of the informal sector is undeniably a natural market-driven response to current conditions: the environment is still too risky for large investments; it is expensive to be licensed, pay taxes, and com- ply with rules; and there is the ever-present potential for down- stream policy reversals to change the rules of the game. The disappointing results have been noted by officials from those governments that introduced reforms. Very often they took sub- stantial political risks to do so, relying on the promise of new invest- ments and rapid growth to alleviate the short-term dislocations from such reforms. As a result, skepticism over the effectiveness of eco- nomic liberalization is becoming more widespread, particularly be- cause many senior level officials believe that the reform process has been largely completed. To generate domestic political support these leaders sometimes decry the imposed mandates of the World Bank and IMF, further undermining the effectiveness of reform programs. Among analysts, the relative paucity of new investment flows has firmly entered the lexicon as the lack of a supply response. Debates now center on the impact of these reform programs, their "depth" Introduction / 15 and speed, and how they can be managed differently in the future to ensure more positive results.8 Yet irrespective of this debate, no one will deny that in most African countries problems remain in the investment climates that affect the "supply response" of investors. This paper is not concerned with determining whether this is a re- sult of reforms not having gone far enough, institutional weakness, or inadequate pacing of reforms and support in implementation. Rather, we focus on the existing array of regulations and bureau- cratic requirements that confront investors and how these adminis- trative constraints continue to deter new investment. Administrative Barriers to Investment There are clearly a variety of factors behind Africa's continued fail- ure to attract productive private investment. This paper makes the simple proposition that a large part of the problem, at least in terms of the paucity of new investment, can be found by looking at the actual experience that confronts investors when they set up a com- pany. In particular, this experience too often consists of a morass of licenses, approvals, permits, and other requirements that result in undue delays and unforeseen costs, encourage bribery and corrup- tion, and foster an environment of pervasive uncertainty for all in- vestors. These administrative constraints to investment, which often have their origins in the earlier era of extensive state control over private investment, persist in spite of a substantial opening-up of the economy. Although the restrictive policies may have changed, the institutions that implemented them still exist and the proce- dures they spawned persist or even proliferate. Let us put aside for the moment the deterrents to investment arising from questions of comparative advantage, resource endow- ments, factor costs, transportation links, and most of the other fun- damentals that determine investor flows. The bottom line is that in most African countries the procedures for setting up a company and entering into legitimate business are a nightmare. When someone has finally made the decision to invest he then is subjected to some 16 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa of the worst treatment imaginable, sometimes from the various agen- cies of that government that so actively courted him in the first place. In a few cases this treatment consists of outright extortion: presenting the investor with insurmountable delays or repeated ob- stacles unless he makes a large payoff or gives a shareholding to a "friend" in the government or to his or her relative. In most cases, however, the types of obstacles encountered are more mundane. Although these procedural requirements may in- voke graft as a means of dealing with the situation, this is typically on a petty scale. These types of procedural hurdles include * Registering a company * Securing investment incentives * Securing sectoral or other business licensing * Getting a tax number * Documenting the investment to be made (for foreign investors) * Leasing, purchasing, or otherwise gaining access to land X Getting utilities services connected * Securing work permits for expatriate managers * Obtaining building permits and municipal licenses * Importing equipment and inputs * Having health and safety inspections performed * Complying with employment formalities. The maintenance of overly complex registration procedures, com- bined with a lack of institutional capacity, often means that these mere procedural tasks become major obstacles to investment. At lower levels of bureaucracy, officials are often still distrustful of private businessmen. Alternatively, businessmen are simply viewed as a source of supplemental income generation for underpaid and dispirited bureaucrats. Both motivations can mean the persistence of otherwise lower-level irritants to business formation and opera- tion, often elevating them to the point of constraints in an overall investment climate that remains hostile. This has been true not- withstanding a commitment to reform and liberalization at deci- sion-making levels of government. These factors can be particularly Introduction / 17 negative for foreign investors who may not be politically connected, operate under strict internal corporate guidelines, or do not have local partners to take care of the multitude of procedural obstacles and associated payments. There are a number of symptoms associated with this degree of administrative complexity, in terms of how it affects both private in- vestment and private sector development overall. Indications that sec- ond-tier administrative constraints are a problem include the following: * Rigid and pervasive barriers between formal and informal sec- tors. Although not the only element encouraging the growth of the informal sector, administrative complexity is certainly a contribut- ing factor. Regulatory compliance, as much as paying taxes, can in- crease the cost of becoming a formal sector enterprise. * Very little 100-percent-foreign investment. Foreign investors often rely on local partners or intermediaries to negotiate the maze of requirements and payoffs required to establish a business. In prac- tice, few foreign firms decide to go it alone, even though that might be their preference. * Low implementation ratesfor new investment projects. Although there are many reasons why new projects are abandoned, very low rates of realization for new investment projects are an indicator of severe problems encountered by firms as they try to proceed. Some countries, such as Ghana, have had an implementation rate of less than 20 percent among firms registering new investments.9 * Reliance on screening versus monitoring and enforcement. In most African countries, governments have relied on up-front screen- ing and controls over investment as a means of regulating economic activity, rather than monitoring and enforcement of actual actions by firms once they are operational. Even where general investment licensing may have been abandoned, other types of licenses and ap- provals are typically required. This reflects in part institutional weak- ness and an inability to enforce regulations on operating businesses. * Corruption. Corruption, whether on a small or grand scale, is facilitated by the various types of administrative constraints and pro- 18 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa cedural requirements on investors. Where these choke points have proliferated, so have the opportunities for extracting payments from businesses. Where corruption is endemic, there is a further uncer- tainty associated with the discretionary authority of officials in ap- plying the maze of regulations. * Poor relations between the public and private sectors. Relations between government and the private sector are often strained and not productive in this type of environment. Government officials may consider businessmen simply as plotting to evade taxes and other responsibilities, opportunistically as sources of bribes, or cyni- cally as benefitting from protection or other advantages accorded by them. Businessmen, on the other hand, may feel that govern- ments have no respect for the risks they take, act capriciously with no regard for business interests, and simply look to them as sources of money, whether for taxes, political contributions, or bribes. Ex- cessive regulation in fact fosters these kinds of behavior on both sides, producing the very actions it is supposedly meant to curb. These symptoms are quite widespread in Africa, and reflect a num- ber of other influences besides administrative complexity and over- regulation. However, their presence is also a good indicator that there are regulatory issues and administrative constraints affecting the investment environment, compounding what may be an already weak picture in terms of economic fundamentals. The Analytical Approach FIAS began confronting these issues at the outset of its efforts to advise African nations on improving the investment climate. Ini- tially, most FIAS advisory projects focused on the major policy is- sues affecting the investment environment as well as the restrictiveness of specific investment regimes or codes. After more than a decade of experience with African liberalization and improvements in the gen- eral investment climate, however, secondary factors increasingly emerged as major constraints and typified the actual experience of Introduction / 19 firms attempting to invest, which complained of all the obstacles in their paths. FIAS' attention to these matters was at first neither systematic nor well defined in terms of an analytical approach. As a result, early attempts to focus policy makers' attention on these issues were of- ten rebuffed. For example, a 1991 study on Cote d'Ivoire docu- mented the 61 discrete steps required to establish a business, in order to illustrate this type of problem.'0 In subsequent work in 1995 in Ghana a more coherent methodology was established and further refined in the following years in Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda by FIAS and The Services Group." This methodology is quite simple. It consists of documenting in precise detail all the administrative requirements for establishing a business and making it operational. This includes all licenses, ap- provals, registrations, permits, or other formalities required to be in full compliance with existing laws and regulations. In addition, project teams also gathered data on the delays associated with each step, the costs, and the forms or information required. This research was typically done in full collaboration with government agencies whose active participation in the process was solicited from the be- ginning. As an example of this methodology, Figure 1 illustrates graphically the steps in the process for a foreign manufacturing firm in Uganda. Once the administrative and logistical hurdles of making an in- vestment are mapped out as in Figure 1, it is easy to identify areas of duplication, excessively complex and intrusive requirements, or in- effectual implementation. The recommendations made for each country typically focus on areas where administrative procedures can be simply eliminated, streamlined, or otherwise improved to ensure that they are not constraints. Where regulatory controls or informational requirements are maintained, recommendations of- ten emphasize improving implementation. This often means chang- ing the attitude of government agencies from one of control and distrust to one of service provision and facilitation, along with en- suring compliance. 20 / Administrative Barriers to Investment in Africa FIGURE 1 NEMA Steps fora Foreign Manufacturing Operation in Uganda ~ 0 0 -no S. g 0 14a. Install Service 13a. Pay Installation Cost 12a. Give Invoice UEB 1 la. Accept Cost Estimate 1 Oa. Visit Site & Estimate Costs 9a. Apply for Service < 14b. Install Service Investor 13b. Pay Installation Cost 12b. Give Invoice NWSC 11 b. Accept Cost Estimate 1 Ob. Visit Site & Estimate Costs 9b. Apply for Service 14c. Install Service 1 3c. Pay Installation Cost 1 2c. Give Invoice UPTC Telecom 1 Ic. Accept Cost Estimate 1 Oc. Visit Site & Estimate Costs 9c. Apply for Service 16c. Start Service UPTC Mail 16b. Pay Annual Rent 7_ 16a. ApplyforService E c E taCisticiarl .o ] ~ X E : oeZ c 0 o 0 0 - - 0 o r= Government 15. Submit Building Data > E o > s Statistician 8-C -0 - E~ ';6 d - = Fctories Ispectorate NS Introduction / 21 Lands Land Board/ Commission Town Council ox ox ox ox ux -P rl p. pp-r S o 0 Y ' ? r 0 5 0 > 3 ___ ___ ___ ____ 8 a. Submit Applications & Building Plans