Last week, Uganda launched a regulatory reform programme with World Bank support. According to the press release, the reform program will focus on reducing regulatory costs and risks associated with obtaining business licenses, and on simplifying and reducing taxes for small and medium enterprises. Uganda’s legal and regulatory regime is cited as one of the biggest challenges constraining the country’s private sector. A recent World Bank Group study of Uganda’s business licensing regime puts the annual private sector regulatory compliance costs at $175 million per year, which represents 1.3 percent of the country’s GDP.
Uganda is not alone in this venture: regulatory reforms are pursued across the region and are boosted by the adoption in November 2009 of the Common Market Protocol, which should lead to measures to ease doing business and harmonised laws that guarantee the region's competitiveness to help its economies are to surpass the current level of investments.
In a follow up to last year's peer-to-peer reformers meeting in Arusha, the World Bank Group convened another meeting in Kampala recently to assess progress and how much ease has been created for businesses to operate in the region.
The Bank's experts say the region now requires more business-friendly regulation and faster legislation of business laws, preferably handled by the region's parliament. Reforms are also needed in tax payment systems, land registration and business licensing.
This work is supported by the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group which helps governments implement reforms to improve their business environment, and encourage and retain investment, thus fostering competitive markets, growth and job creation. Funding is provided by the World Bank Group (IFC, MIGA, and the World Bank) and over fifteen donor partners working through the multi-donor FIAS platform
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