Government takes step to make doing business easier
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, AUGUST 17, 2010 (SKNIS) – The government of St. Kitts and Nevis is working to reduce bureaucratic red tape and make it easier to do business in the federation.
Currently there are eight steps to incorporate a company locally, which involves interfacing with many government agencies. Fidela Clarke, Director General of the Registrar Of Companies, said reviews are ongoing to simplify and lessen the process.
“The proposed reforms will tend to consider amalgamating some of the [procedures] together so that instead of going to various agencies you would be able to go to only one place to have certain things done at the same time,” Ms. Clarke said.
She noted that one proposal being considered is to have the Company’s Registry Interact with the Inland Revenue Department and Social Security to get a tax identification number and registration numbers on behalf of prospective businesses. This interaction will be much more efficient, rather than having business representatives approach each agency separately at different stages in the registration process.
“We’d be killing several birds with one stone,” Ms. Clarke emphasized.
The reforms were prompted after the federation was ranked number 76 out of 183 countries in the World Bank Doing Business Project, which provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The rankings are from the Doing Business 2010 report, covering the period June 2008 through May 2009.