HARARE, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has slipped four places to 161 out of 190 economies on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Rankings for 2017.
At number 157 in 2016, the country this time scored badly in areas such as starting a business, getting electricity and protecting minority investors, despite its greater reform efforts this year to improve business and investment climate.
Through technical support from the World Bank, Zimbabwe is implementing a raft of reforms to improve the ease of doing business and attract foreign direct investment.
Under the reforms, the country has managed to significantly reduce the time it takes to register a company from three months to just 13 days.
The government has said it needs to work on 13 pieces of legislation to improve the business environment.
Areas that the country is working to improve include tax payment, cross-border trading, resolving insolvency, getting credit, enforcing contracts and processing of construction permits.
Zimbabwe's harsh investment environment has resulted in a low level of foreign direct investment in over a decade, which stood at 421 million U.S. dollars in 2015.
