The World Bank Group is seeking Jamaican professionals to become partners for their global research project, the Doing Business Report.

Dahlia Khalifa, senior strategy advisor for the Doing Business Report told Sunday Finance last week that the Group is seeking qualified and experienced professionals from Jamaica and the rest of the world to participate in providing the information used in compiling the report.

The Doing Business Report is an annual publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that benchmarks business regulation in 183 economies worldwide, including Jamaica. Among the key professionals targeted for the pro bono global research project are lawyers, accountants, auditors, freight forwarders, architects, judges, engineers and public officials.

So far the Group has over 8,000 partners across the world, but local specialists are needed to contribute their expertise for the 2012 Report said Khalifa. “We are continuously looking for new local partners and consultants,” she said, adding “Preferably persons who are aware of the regulatory processes involved in a particular jurisdiction.”

Khalifa said the Group does its own verification of the expertise of the partners and of the information supplied.

A high ranking on the ‘ease of doing business’ index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. The index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of xz xa variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic: Starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

In the 2010 report, on which there were 26 local partners, Jamaica ranks 75 out of 183 countries in the ease of doing business, eight places below the 2009 ranking of 67. The country has fallen on all but two of the ten areas of assessment over the past two years, moving up seven places from 120 to 122 on ‘registering property’, and one place from 175 to 174 on ‘paying taxes’. The country has fallen three places from 70 to 73 on ‘protecting investors’ and seven places, from 12 to 19 on ‘starting a business’.

The 2010 report ranks Jamaica at 10 in the Latin America and Caribbean region, in the ease of doing business, behind Puerto Rico, St Lucia and Columbia, ranked one to three respectively; Chile, Antigua and Barbuda, Mexico and Peru, four to seven; and Bahamas, St Vincent and the Grenadines, eight and nine.

Partners should have professional expertise in any of the 10 topics on which the research is being done. Partner submissions are welcome through the year, said Khalifa. This year, there were 31 contributors from Jamaica for the soon to be released 2011 report. The local partners who have agreed to disclose their participation include law firms Myers, Fletcher and Gordon, Dunn Cox and Nunes, Scholefield and DeLeon; the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, the Tax Administration Services Department, Jamaica Trade and Invest/Jampro, Jamaica Customs, National Land Agency and the Jamaica Public Service Company.

There are varying extents to the levels of contribution among partners. There are those who partner globally, such as is the case with MNCs, regional partners such as businesses, or local partners including businesses and individuals. Some participate by simply responding to the questionnaire ‘Trading Across Borders’ that is made available by the Group. The questionnaire runs to 10 pages but should not take longer than half and hour to complete by someone who has experience of the international supply chain.

The benefits to partners include having an input in improving business environments worldwide, establishing and maintaining contacts with the World Bank and the IFC and becoming a part of a global network of 8000 professionals. According to Khalifa, for their contribution, partners get a “complimentary copy of the report, a personalized certificate, a thank you letter and greeting card, quarterly newsletter, and recognition, if they would like it, on the Doing Business website and in the report as a local Doing Business project contributor.”

One can become a local partner by emailing rru@worldbank.org, including your name, contact information, expertise and specifying that you would be willing to complete a Trading Across Borders questionnaire for the 2012 Report. A member of the Doing Business team will then contact you. Alternatively you can complete the form at www.doingbusiness.org/localpartners/LocalPartners2.aspx. The more responses to the questionnaire the wider the sample for analysis, which should improve the results. The 2011 Report has already been prepared and will be made available in two months.