New e-portal to improve ‘ease of doing business’

The Department of Trade & Industry has launched the pilot phase of a ‘new business portal’ aimed at making it easier for ‘young people’ to ‘start new enterprises’ – and, more widely, to ‘contribute positively’ towards ‘the ease of doing business’ in SA, CompliNEWS contributor Pam Saxby reports. According to a media statement on the pilot portal, it is a ‘collaborative initiative’ involving several public entities, led by the Companies & Intellectual Property Commission. Once fully operational, the new e-facility will make it possible for entrepreneurs to register a company and domain name, register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Compensation Fund – and obtain a tax registration number, a business bank account and a broad-based black economic empowerment certificate. In the ‘medium-to-long-term’, this is expected to reduce the time it takes to start a business in SA from 40 days (World Bank 2019 ease of doing business report) to within 24 hours. However, it is not clear from the statement how the portal will dovetail with InvestSA’s one-stop-shops, which were introduced under former President Jacob Zuma’s watch with similar objectives.

This notwithstanding, Trade & Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel described the launch of the pilot portal as ‘a great signal’ to stakeholders in this year’s investment conference, which began last week. Referred to in a Presidency press release as a ‘key milestone’ in reaching the ‘ambitious’ five-year goal of raising ‘R1.2 trillion in new domestic and international investment’, the annual conference is ‘a partner initiative’ to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2018 economic stimulus package and recovery plan. According to the President, it was expected to ‘highlight the positive steps government is taking to improve the investment environment’; provide feedback on progress made with last year’s investment commitments; and provide ‘a platform for government to engage with the local and international investment community in order to promote … investment opportunities … and explore new markets’.