DOING BUSINESS PUBLIC SECTOR OVERVIEW
By Amรกn Sรกnchez Advisor and Coordinator of Business Climate
The recent amendments made to the Code of Commerce 1 constitute the first legislative outcome of the work that the Ministry of Economy (MINECO) has been engaging in since 2013 through the National Program for Competitiveness (PRONACOM), with the objective of improving the business climate in the country, creating employment, investment and wealth, and showing impact on international indicators. These amendments were achieved by several stakeholders, including public officials and members of the Congress of the Republic. The importance of the Doing Business Report lies in its comparative value; the report is an objective measure of regulations comparing 190 economies worldwide that is aimed at defining the ease of doing business in each of them. The Doing Business Report uses uniform case studies and serves as a reference for research work, comparisons and business decisions. The 2018 report ranked Guatemala in the 97th position; this is the lowest position in the last 6 years and the same one the country had in 20122. 1 Amendments contained in Decree 18-2017 of Congress, published in the Central American Gazette on October 31, 2017. 2 World Bank. 2018. Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs. Washington, DC: World Bank. DOI: 10.1596/978-14648-1146-3. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO 44
The Doing Business Report contains 10 sub-indicators, one of them the ease of opening companies, which examines the procedure of creation and registration of a Guatemalan corporation; hence the importance of the legislative result achieved. The amendments to the Code of Commerce, contained in 19 articles, amend key provisions of the Code of Commerce, in force since 1971, which prevented further work on facilitation, decentralization and acceleration of the procedure that MINECO, the Trade Registry and PRONACOM started in 2013 with the tool Minegocio.gt. This project achieved radical changes at the administrative level, which were reflected in the indicator with a leap of 75 positions from 2013 to 2015. However, this was not enough to compete efficiently worldwide3. 3 World Bank. 2018. Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs. Washington, DC: World Bank. DOI: 10.1596/978-14648-1146-3. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO