Colombia: “We Can Do Better”

“We can do better” was Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s favorite phrase during the launch of Doing Business Colombia 2008 on January 30 in Bogota.

He is right. During the event, the results of the sub-national study that compared the ease of doing business in 13 cities in Colombia showed that smaller municipalities like Pereira, Manizales or Bucaramanga are doing better than Bogota, the city that represents Colombia in the global ranking.

Bogota does not lead in any of the 5 indicators covered in the Colombian study (starting a business, registering property, paying taxes, trading across borders and enforcing contracts). And, in the case of enforcing contracts it ranks last. For example, in Bogota 1,354 days are needed to resolve a commercial dispute, whereas only 422 days are required in Villavicencio.

This is why, encouraged by the findings of this report, the Colombian government started an initiative lead by the National Planning Department, the office of the High Commissioner for Competitiveness and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, to improve the business environment across the country.

The plan will set up workshops –carried out by various local and national officials- to promote best practices used by cities that were top performers in each indicator. Mr. Uribe argues that it would be easier to persuade local authorities to follow the example of a neighboring city rather than the example of a distant country. And he may be right again. A recent follow up of a similar study in Mexico showed just that.

Another important point made by Mr. Uribe is that local authorities already have the tools to improve in many of the indicators because Colombia is not a federal state and national legislation is the same for all regions. This means that if in Popayan an entrepreneur can pay his taxes in 86 hours, Bogota could improve its time of 286 hours without major legal changes (i.e. through administrative reform).

If authorities in Bogota can apply some of the best practices currently in place in various smaller cities in Colombia, the country may improve its global ranking –currently 66-  and perhaps maintain for the second year in a row its status as a top global reformer in Doing Business 2009.

So, yes, Mr. President, Colombia can definitely do better.