Iraq is the most challenging MENA country to start a business: report

Shafaq News/ Labyrinthine regulatory system and high fees render Iraq among the most onerous countries to start a business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, a report by the"Iraq al-Mustaqbal" (Iraq of the future) foundation said on Sunday.

"Many entrepreneurs refrain from registering their business to avoid engaging the complex and exorbitant venture through the complex regulator system of Iraq," Manar al-Obaidi, the head of the foundation, said, "this significantly undermines the growth of businesses in the country."

"Iraq ranks 154th out of 170 states globally for the ease of starting a business legally," he said, "this ranking is the lowest for a MENA country."

According to the report, three main critical factors contribute to complicating the process of registering businesses in Iraq:

1. High fees: the average cost of starting a business in Iraq is 34% of the country's income per capita. In other MENA countries, starting a business costs only 13%.

2. Registration time: The average time needed to register a business in Iraq is 26 days, which is higher than the average for the MENA region (16.3 days).

3. Manpower: the minimum number of persons needed to start a business in Iraq (eight) is significantly higher when compared to the average in other MENA countries (six).

Al-Obaidi added that "the huge volume of required documents, multiple decision-making entities, financial and administrative corruption, low working hours of government registration agencies, and the lack of automation further weaken the registration system."

Iraq al-Mostaqbal's chief suggested streamlining the registration process by assigning it to a single entity that cuts the red tape and channels the legal proceedings to the other relevant state institutions.