Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Economy Profile Vanuatu Page 1 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Economy Profile of Vanuatu Doing Business 2020 Indicators (in order of appearance in the document) Starting a business Procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital to start a limited liability company Dealing with construction permits Procedures, time and cost to complete all formalities to build a warehouse and the quality control and safety mechanisms in the construction permitting system Getting electricity Procedures, time and cost to get connected to the electrical grid, and the reliability of the electricity supply and the transparency of tariffs Registering property Procedures, time and cost to transfer a property and the quality of the land administration system Getting credit Movable collateral laws and credit information systems Protecting minority investors Minority shareholders’ rights in related-party transactions and in corporate governance Paying taxes Payments, time, total tax and contribution rate for a firm to comply with all tax regulations as well as postfiling processes Trading across borders Time and cost to export the product of comparative advantage and import auto parts Enforcing contracts Time and cost to resolve a commercial dispute and the quality of judicial processes Resolving insolvency Time, cost, outcome and recovery rate for a commercial insolvency and the strength of the legal framework for insolvency Employing workers Flexibility in employment regulation and redundancy cost Page 2 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu About Doing Business The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. The Doing Business project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. Doing Business captures several important dimensions of the regulatory environment as it applies to local firms. It provides quantitative indicators on regulation for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of employing workers. Although Doing Business does not present rankings of economies on the employing workers indicators or include the topic in the aggregate ease of doing business score or ranking on the ease of doing business, it does present the data for these indicators. By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages economies to compete towards more efficient regulation; offers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, journalists, private sector researchers and others interested in the business climate of each economy. In addition, Doing Business offers detailed subnational studies, which exhaustively cover business regulation and reform in different cities and regions within a nation. These studies provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. Selected cities can compare their business regulations with other cities in the economy or region and with the 190 economies that Doing Business has ranked. The first Doing Business study, published in 2003, covered 5 indicator sets and 133 economies. This year’s study covers 11 indicator sets and 190 economies. Most indicator sets refer to a case scenario in the largest business city of each economy, except for 11 economies that have a population of more than 100 million as of 2013 (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States) where Doing Business also collected data for the second largest business city. The data for these 11 economies are a population-weighted average for the 2 largest business cities. The project has benefited from feedback from governments, academics, practitioners and reviewers. The initial goal remains: to provide an objective basis for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business around the world. To learn more about Doing Business please visit doingbusiness.org Page 3 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Ease of Doing Business in DB RANK DB SCORE Region East Asia & Pacific Vanuatu Income Category Lower middle income Population 292,680 107 61.1 City Covered Port Vila Rankings on Doing Business topics - Vanuatu 37 67 84 101 101 137 138 147 148 163 Starting Dealing Getting Registering Getting Protecting Paying Trading Enforcing Resolving a with Electricity Property Credit Minority Taxes across Contracts Insolvency Business Construction Investors Borders Permits Topic Scores 81.5 54.6 72.2 65.6 75.0 32.0 77.8 59.1 49.3 43.4 Starting a Business (rank) 137 Getting Credit (rank) 37 Trading across Borders (rank) 148 Score of starting a business (0-100) 81.5 Score of getting credit (0-100) 75.0 Score of trading across borders (0-100) 59.1 Procedures (number) 7 Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 11 Time to export Time (days) 18 Depth of credit information index (0-8) 4 Documentary compliance (hours) 72 Cost (number) 42.5 Credit registry coverage (% of adults) 0.0 Border compliance (hours) 38 Paid-in min. capital (% of income per capita) 0.0 Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) 17.6 Cost to export Documentary compliance (USD) 190 Dealing with Construction Permits (rank) 163 Protecting Minority Investors (rank) 147 Border compliance (USD) 709 Score of dealing with construction permits (0-100) 54.6 Score of protecting minority investors (0-100) 32.0 Time to export Procedures (number) 15 Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 5.0 Documentary compliance (hours) 48 Time (days) 123 Extent of director liability index (0-10) 6.0 Border compliance (hours) 126 Cost (% of warehouse value) 9.4 Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 5.0 Cost to export Building quality control index (0-15) 5.0 Extent of shareholder rights index (0-6) 0.0 Documentary compliance (USD) 183 Extent of ownership and control index (0-7) 0.0 Border compliance (USD) 681 Getting Electricity (rank) 101 Extent of corporate transparency index (0-7) 0.0 Score of getting electricity (0-100) 72.2 Enforcing Contracts (rank) 138 Procedures (number) 4 Paying Taxes (rank) 67 Score of enforcing contracts (0-100) 49.3 Time (days) 120 Score of paying taxes (0-100) 77.8 Time (days) 430 Cost (% of income per capita) 1,037.6 Payments (number per year) 31 Cost (% of claim value) 56.0 Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index (0-8) 5 Time (hours per year) 120 Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 6.5 Total tax and contribution rate (% of profit) 8.5 Registering Property (rank) 84 Postfiling index (0-100) 69.0 Resolving Insolvency (rank) 101 Score of registering property (0-100) 65.6 Score of resolving insolvency (0-100) 43.4 Procedures (number) 4 Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) 45.8 Time (days) 58 Time (years) 2.6 Cost (% of property value) 7.0 Cost (% of estate) 38.0 Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 18.5 Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as going 1 concern) Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 6.0 Page 4 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Starting a Business This topic measures the number of procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital requirement for a small- to medium-sized limited liability company to start up and formally operate in each economy’s largest business city. To make the data comparable across 190 economies, Doing Business uses a standardized business that is 100% domestically owned, has start-up capital equivalent to 10 times the income per capita, engages in general industrial or commercial activities and employs between 10 and 50 people one month after the commencement of operations, all of whom are domestic nationals. Starting a Business considers two types of local limited liability companies that are identical in all aspects, except that one company is owned by 5 married women and the other by 5 married men. The ranking of economies on the ease of starting a business is determined by sorting their scores for starting a business. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally start and formally operate a company To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the business and the (number) procedures are used. It is assumed that any required information is readily available and that the entrepreneur will pay no bribes. • Preregistration (for example, name verification or reservation, notarization) The business: • Registration in the economy’s largest business city -Is a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent). If there is more than one type of limited • Postregistration (for example, social security registration, liability company in the economy, the limited liability form most common among domestic firms is company seal) chosen. Information on the most common form is obtained from incorporation lawyers or the statistical office. • Obtaining approval from spouse to start a business or to leave -Operates in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the home to register the company the second largest business city. • Obtaining any gender specific document for company -Performs general industrial or commercial activities such as the production or sale to the public of registration and operation or national identification card goods or services. The business does not perform foreign trade activities and does not handle products subject to a special tax regime, for example, liquor or tobacco. It is not using heavily Time required to complete each procedure (calendar days) polluting production processes. • Does not include time spent gathering information -Does not qualify for investment incentives or any special benefits. -Is 100% domestically owned. • Each procedure starts on a separate day (2 procedures cannot -Has five business owners, none of whom is a legal entity. One business owner holds 30% of the start on the same day) company shares, two owners have 20% of shares each, and two owners have 15% of shares • Procedures fully completed online are recorded as ½ day each. -Is managed by one local director. • Procedure is considered completed once final document is -Has between 10 and 50 employees one month after the commencement of operations, all of them received domestic nationals. • No prior contact with officials -Has start-up capital of 10 times income per capita. -Has an estimated turnover of at least 100 times income per capita. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of income per -Leases the commercial plant or offices and is not a proprietor of real estate. capita) -Has an annual lease for the office space equivalent to one income per capita. • Official costs only, no bribes -Is in an office space of approximately 929 square meters (10,000 square feet). -Has a company deed that is 10 pages long. • No professional fees unless services required by law or commonly used in practice The owners: Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita) -Have reached the legal age of majority and are capable of making decisions as an adult. If there • Funds deposited in a bank or with third party before registration is no legal age of majority, they are assumed to be 30 years old. or up to 3 months after incorporation -Are in good health and have no criminal record. -Are married, the marriage is monogamous and registered with the authorities. -Where the answer differs according to the legal system applicable to the woman or man in question (as may be the case in economies where there is legal plurality), the answer used will be the one that applies to the majority of the population. Page 5 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Starting a Business - Vanuatu Standardized Company Legal form Private Limited Liability Company Paid-in minimum capital requirement No minimum City Covered Port Vila Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Procedure – Men (number) 7 6.5 4.9 1 (2 Economies) Time – Men (days) 18 25.6 9.2 0.5 (New Zealand) Cost – Men (% of income per capita) 42.5 17.4 3.0 0.0 (2 Economies) Procedure – Women (number) 7 6.6 4.9 1 (2 Economies) Time – Women (days) 18 25.7 9.2 0.5 (New Zealand) Cost – Women (% of income per capita) 42.5 17.4 3.0 0.0 (2 Economies) Paid-in min. capital (% of income per capita) 0.0 3.5 7.6 0.0 (120 Economies) Figure – Starting a Business in Vanuatu – Score 64.7 82.4 78.8 100.0 Procedures Time Cost Paid-in min. capital Figure – Starting a Business in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Starting a Business Score 0 100 92.6: Samoa (Rank: 46) 88.4: Marshall Islands (Rank: 83) 83.9: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 81.5: Vanuatu (Rank: 137) 78.4: Kiribati (Rank: 149) 69.6: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 174) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of starting a business is determined by sorting their scores for starting a business. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. Page 6 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Starting a Business in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) 18 35 16 30 Cost (% of income per capita) 14 25 12 Time (days) 10 20 8 15 6 10 4 5 2 0 0 1 2 3 *4 5 *6 7 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a different procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://doingbusiness.org/en/methodology). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary below. Page 7 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Starting a Business in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedures Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Check the uniqueness of the company name 1 day no charge Agency : Vanuatu Financial Services Commission This service is not automated and cannot be completed on the spot. A form must be completed and faxed to the VFSC – this form is usually available at the lawyer’s office or can be downloaded from http://www.vfsc.vu/steps.html. At least three alternatives must be provided and the VFSC will return the form providing information on their availability. There is no charge for this service and it takes only 1 day to complete this process. In addition to checking the name (as recorded by the Starting a business indicator), it is possible to reserve the name, which costs VUV 5,000. Reserving the name is a good practice but not required and not done systematically. 2 Apply for incorporation at the VFSCU 4 days VUV 35,000 for in person Agency : Vanuatu Financial Services Commission filing and VUV 30,000 for Pursuant to Official Gazette No. 75 of 2015 (dated 31 August 2015), it is now possible to register a online applications. company online. A company can conduct all steps online, and also has the option to choose model rules, to avoid having to use legal services to draft their own rules. The application is filled out online, and reviewed by officers online. Fees can be paid through an online payment processing system. The certificate of incorporation is delivered by email on confirmation of incorporation. However, most applications for incorporation are filed in person. Online applications cost VUV 30,000 and in person, VUV 35,000. 3 Apply for a business license from the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue services 1 day VUV 20,000 to 1,000,000 Agency : Department of Customs and Inland Revenue Services (VUV 100,000 in case of a An incorporated company is not entitled to begin operating until it has obtained a business license turnover between VUV from the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue Services. It may take 2–3 weeks to obtain 20,000,000 and VUV such a license. 30,000,000). Business license certificates are issued by the Rates and Taxes Authority. The fee varies by type and size of business,as indicated by the Business Licence (Amendment) Act No. 30 of 2013: Fee schedule: • < VUV 4 Million(annual turnover): VUV 10 thousand (fee) • > VUV 4 Million to 10 Million (annual turnover): VUV 20 thousand (fee) • > VUV 10 Million to 20 Million (annual turnover): VUV 50 thousand (fee) • > VUV 20 Million to 50 Million (annual turnover): VUV100 thousand (fee) • > VUV 50 Million to 100 Million (annual turnover): VUV 250 thousand (fee) • > VUV 100 Million to 200 Million (annual turnover): VUV 500 thousand (fee) • > VUV 200 Million />(annual turnover): VUV 1 Million(fee). 4 Register with the VAT office 3 days, simultaneous no charge Agency : Department of Customs and Inland Revenue Services with procedure 4 A company must register with the value added tax (VAT) office if it anticipates turnover of at least VUV 4 million per year. 5 Register as an employer with the National Provident Fund 1 week no charge Agency : National Provident Fund All employees from the age of 14 – 55 must join the fund. 50% of the monthly contribution (understand gross salary) is paid by the employer and 50% by the employee. This is for the retirement benefits of the employees. Under the law, an employer must register with this fund 7 days after incorporation of the business (or 7 days as soon as the first employee is recruited). Payment of contribution is made directly at the National Provident Fund. 6 Enroll employees in the work accident insurance 3 days, simultaneous no charge Agency : Any insurance fund with previous procedure All employers are required to insure their employees against workplace accidents. 7 Make a company seal 3 days VUV 3,000 Agency : Sealmaker By law, a company must have a seal – a mean to authenticate its documents. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 8 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Dealing with Construction Permits This topic tracks the procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse—including obtaining necessary the licenses and permits, submitting all required notifications, requesting and receiving all necessary inspections and obtaining utility connections. In addition, the Dealing with Construction Permits indicator measures the building quality control index, evaluating the quality of building regulations, the strength of quality control and safety mechanisms, liability and insurance regimes, and professional certification requirements. The most recent round of data collection was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally build a warehouse (number) To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the construction company, the warehouse project and the utility connections are used. • Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining all necessary clearances, licenses, permits and certificates The construction company (BuildCo): • Submitting all required notifications and receiving all necessary - Is a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) and operates in the economy’s largest inspections business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. • Obtaining utility connections for water and sewerage - Is 100% domestically and privately owned; has five owners, none of whom is a legal entity. Has a licensed architect and a licensed engineer, both registered with the local association of architects • Registering and selling the warehouse after its completion or engineers. BuildCo is not assumed to have any other employees who are technical or licensed Time required to complete each procedure (calendar days) experts, such as geological or topographical experts. - Owns the land on which the warehouse will be built and will sell the warehouse upon its • Does not include time spent gathering information completion. • Each procedure starts on a separate day—though procedures that can be fully completed online are an exception to this rule The warehouse: - Will be used for general storage activities, such as storage of books or stationery. • Procedure is considered completed once final document is received - Will have two stories, both above ground, with a total constructed area of approximately 1,300.6 square meters (14,000 square feet). Each floor will be 3 meters (9 feet, 10 inches) high and will be • No prior contact with officials located on a land plot of approximately 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) that is 100% owned by BuildCo, and the warehouse is valued at 50 times income per capita. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of income per - Will have complete architectural and technical plans prepared by a licensed architect. If capita) preparation of the plans requires such steps as obtaining further documentation or getting prior • Official costs only, no bribes approvals from external agencies, these are counted as procedures. - Will take 30 weeks to construct (excluding all delays due to administrative and regulatory Building quality control index (0-15) requirements). • Quality of building regulations (0-2) The water and sewerage connections: • Quality control before construction (0-1) - Will be 150 meters (492 feet) from the existing water source and sewer tap. If there is no water • Quality control during construction (0-3) delivery infrastructure in the economy, a borehole will be dug. If there is no sewerage infrastructure, a septic tank in the smallest size available will be installed or built. • Quality control after construction (0-3) - Will have an average water use of 662 liters (175 gallons) a day and an average wastewater flow • Liability and insurance regimes (0-2) of 568 liters (150 gallons) a day. Will have a peak water use of 1,325 liters (350 gallons) a day and • Professional certifications (0-4) a peak wastewater flow of 1,136 liters (300 gallons) a day. - Will have a constant level of water demand and wastewater flow throughout the year; will be 1 inch in diameter for the water connection and 4 inches in diameter for the sewerage connection. Page 9 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Dealing with Construction Permits - Vanuatu Standardized Warehouse Estimated value of warehouse VUV 16,253,241.80 City Covered Port Vila Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Procedures (number) 15 14.8 12.7 None in 2018/19 Time (days) 123 132.3 152.3 None in 2018/19 Cost (% of warehouse value) 9.4 3.2 1.5 None in 2018/19 Building quality control index (0-15) 5.0 9.4 11.6 15.0 (6 Economies) Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu – Score 60.0 72.0 52.9 33.3 Procedures Time Cost Building quality control index Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Dealing with Construction Permits Score 0 100 71.1: Marshall Islands (Rank: 76) 70.0: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 68.8: Samoa (Rank: 94) 61.0: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 136) 54.6: Vanuatu (Rank: 163) 52.2: Kiribati (Rank: 169) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of dealing with construction permits is determined by sorting their scores for dealing with construction permits. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. Page 10 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost Time (days) Cost (% of warehouse value) 8 120 7 Cost (% of warehouse value) 100 6 80 Time (days) 5 60 4 3 40 2 20 1 0 0 1 2 3 *4 *5 *6 *7 8 9 10 11 * 12 13 14 15 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a different procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://doingbusiness.org/en/methodology). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary below. Page 11 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 10 9.4 9 8 Index score 7 6.0 6.0 6 5.0 5 4 3 2 1.0 1 0.0 0 Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedures Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Request and obtain preliminary environmental assessment 15 days VUV 20,000 Agency : Department of Environmental Protection & Conservation (DEPC) According to the Law on Environment published in the Official Gazette on August 13, 2011, it is mandatory to obtain a preliminary environmental impact assessment (EIA) conducted by the Department of Environmental Protection & Conservation (DEPC). If no full EIA is required, an approval may be granted with conditions. This is a requirement prior to having all other departments involved in clearing the permit application. 2 Request building permit and pay application fee 1 day VUV 10,000 Agency : Town Planning and Building Division BuildCo must submit the plans and specifications along with a copy of the lease title (as urban land in Vanuatu belongs to the government). During this process, the approval from 5 departments will be needed: • Public Works Department • Department of Land, Survey and Registry • Geology and Mines Department • Fire Department • Physical Planning Department -- located in the Municipality The following documents must be submitted to these agencies: • Floor plan • Elevation plan • Cross section plan • Detail plan of ring beam and roof structure – details of next floor must also be provided since this building has one ground floor and 1 level • Services layout plan (electricity, plumbing lines, power point) • Septic tank Plan • Site plan • Location plan • Copy of survey plan • Copy of front page of lease document The application fee is a fixed fee of VUV 10,000.00. 3 Obtain approval from the Public Works Department 5 days no charge Agency : Public Works Department This is the office that would verify the safety of the building. Plans are checked. 4 Obtain approval from the Department of Land, Survey and Registry 3 days no charge Agency : Department of Land, Survey & Registry This office will check that the land lease fees have paid and that the lease type and location are accurate. 5 Obtain approval from the Geology and Mines Department 2 days no charge Agency : Geology and Mines Department This office will check whether the soil is suitable for construction based solely on the location of the intended building. 6 Obtain approval from the Physical Planning Department 2 days no charge Agency : Physical Planning department 7 Obtain approval from the Fire Department 1 day no charge Agency : Fire Department This office will check the fire safety requirements of the building. 8 Pay building permit fee and obtain building permit 90 days VUV 1,138,025 Agency : Town Planning and Building Division Payment for the construction permit itself is made when the Town Council has approved the permit. The Town Council will meet only if there are more than 10 applications for approval. The fee for a construction permit is VUV 875.00 per sq. m. for commercial or industrial constructions. Page 12 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu 9 Notify the Town Planning and Building Division of commencement of work 1 day no charge Agency : Town Planning and Building Division According to Article 14, Section 4 of the Building Act 2013, BuildCo must notify the Town Planning and Building Division about the intended commencement of work 7 days before starting construction. 10 Request and receive inspection for excavation for a foundation 1 day no charge Agency : Town Planning and Building Division According to Article 14, Section 4 (b) (i) of the BuildingAct 2013, the builder or his representative must notify the Town Planning and Building Division 7 days before the intended covering up of the excavation for foundation. 11 Request and obtain connection to water services from UNELCO 7 days VUV 25,000 Agency : UNELCO Vanuatu Ltd. UNELCO is the sole provider of water and electricity and all requests for connection must be made in person. Build a Septic Tank 6 days VUV 325,000 12 Agency : Private Contractor There is no public sewerage system in Vanuatu. Sanitation arrangements are the responsibility of the construction company and owner and usually consists of an on-site waste treatment consisting of a single septic tank with soak pit for each single-occupancy lot or shared septic tanks and percolation trench arrangements serving multiple units. 13 Request certificate of completion from Town Planning and Building Division (Port Vila 1 day VUV 13,000 Municipality) Agency : Town Planning and Building Division 14 Receive inspection from Town Planning and Building Division (Port Vila Municipality) 1 day no charge Agency : Town Planning and Building Division The Town Planning Unit, Port Vila Municipality would issue a certificate of completion upon performing an inspection. A VUV 13,000.00 fee must be paid for this certificate. 15 Obtain completion certificate 1 day no charge Agency : Town Planning and Building Division Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 13 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Building quality control index (0-15) 5.0 Quality of building regulations index (0-2) 1.0 How accessible are building laws and regulations in your economy? (0-1) They must be 0.0 purchased; Not easily accessible. Which requirements for obtaining a building permit are clearly specified in the building regulations or on any List of required 1.0 accessible website, brochure or pamphlet? (0-1) documents; Fees to be paid; Required preapprovals. Quality control before construction index (0-1) 0.0 Which third-party entities are required by law to verify that the building plans are in compliance with existing By law, there is no 0.0 building regulations? (0-1) need to verify plans compliance; Civil servant reviews plans. Quality control during construction index (0-3) 1.0 What types of inspections (if any) are required by law to be carried out during construction? (0-2) Inspections at various 1.0 phases. Do legally mandated inspections occur in practice during construction? (0-1) Mandatory 0.0 inspections are not always done in practice during construction. Quality control after construction index (0-3) 3.0 Is there a final inspection required by law to verify that the building was built in accordance with the approved Yes, final inspection 2.0 plans and regulations? (0-2) is done by government agency. Do legally mandated final inspections occur in practice? (0-1) Final inspection 1.0 always occurs in practice. Liability and insurance regimes index (0-2) 0.0 Which parties (if any) are held liable by law for structural flaws or problems in the building once it is in use No party is held liable 0.0 (Latent Defect Liability or Decennial Liability)? (0-1) under the law. Which parties (if any) are required by law to obtain an insurance policy to cover possible structural flaws or No party is required 0.0 problems in the building once it is in use (Latent Defect Liability Insurance or Decennial Insurance)? (0-1) by law to obtain insurance . Professional certifications index (0-4) 0.0 What are the qualification requirements for the professional responsible for verifying that the architectural plans There are no specific 0.0 or drawings are in compliance with existing building regulations? (0-2) requirements. What are the qualification requirements for the professional who supervises the construction on the ground? (0- There are no specific 0.0 2) requirements. Page 14 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Getting Electricity This topic measures the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly constructed warehouse. Additionally, the reliability of supply and transparency of tariffs index measures reliability of supply, transparency of tariffs and the price of electricity. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to obtain an electricity connection (number) To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the warehouse, the electricity connection and the monthly consumption are used. • Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining all necessary clearances and permits The warehouse: • Completing all required notifications and receiving all necessary - Is owned by a local entrepreneur and is used for storage of goods. inspections - Is located in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for • Obtaining external installation works and possibly purchasing the second largest business city. material for these works - Is located in an area where similar warehouses are typically located and is in an area with no physical constraints. For example, the property is not near a railway. • Concluding any necessary supply contract and obtaining final - Is a new construction and is being connected to electricity for the first time. supply - Has two stories with a total surface area of approximately 1,300.6 square meters (14,000 square Time required to complete each procedure (calendar days) feet). The plot of land on which it is built is 929 square meters (10,000 square feet). • Is at least 1 calendar day The electricity connection: • Each procedure starts on a separate day - Is a permanent one with a three-phase, four-wire Y connection with a subscribed capacity of 140- kilo-volt-ampere (kVA) with a power factor of 1, when 1 kVA = 1 kilowatt (kW). • Does not include time spent gathering information - Has a length of 150 meters. The connection is to either the low- or medium-voltage distribution • Reflects the time spent in practice, with little follow-up and no network and is either overhead or underground, whichever is more common in the area where the prior contact with officials warehouse is located and requires works that involve the crossing of a 10-meter road (such as by excavation or overhead lines) but are all carried out on public land. There is no crossing of other Cost required to complete each procedure (% of income per owners’ private property because the warehouse has access to a road. capita) - Does not require work to install the internal wiring of the warehouse. This has already been • Official costs only, no bribes completed up to and including the customer’s service panel or switchboard and the meter base. • Value added tax excluded The monthly consumption: The reliability of supply and transparency of tariffs index (0-8) - It is assumed that the warehouse operates 30 days a month from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (8 hours • Duration and frequency of power outages (0–3) a day), with equipment utilized at 80% of capacity on average and that there are no electricity cuts (assumed for simplicity reasons) and the monthly energy consumption is 26,880 kilowatt-hours • Tools to monitor power outages (0–1) (kWh); hourly consumption is 112 kWh. • Tools to restore power supply (0–1) - If multiple electricity suppliers exist, the warehouse is served by the cheapest supplier. - Tariffs effective in January of the current year are used for calculation of the price of electricity for • Regulatory monitoring of utilities’ performance (0–1) the warehouse. Although January has 31 days, for calculation purposes only 30 days are used. • Financial deterrents limiting outages (0–1) • Transparency and accessibility of tariffs (0–1) Price of electricity (cents per kilowatt-hour)* • Price based on monthly bill for commercial warehouse in case study *Note: Doing Business measures the price of electricity, but it is not included in the ease of doing business score nor in the ranking on the ease of getting electricity. Page 15 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Getting Electricity - Vanuatu Standardized Connection Name of utility Unelco Price of electricity (US cents per kWh) 38.2 City Covered Port Vila Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Procedures (number) 4 4.2 4.4 3 (28 Economies) Time (days) 120 63.2 74.8 18 (3 Economies) Cost (% of income per capita) 1037.6 594.6 61.0 0.0 (3 Economies) Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index (0-8) 5 4.0 7.4 8 (26 Economies) Figure – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu – Score 83.3 55.7 87.2 62.5 Reliability of supply and transparency of Procedures Time Cost tariff index Figure – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Getting Electricity Score 0 100 79.7: Samoa (Rank: 71) 75.1: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 72.2: Vanuatu (Rank: 101) 64.4: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 122) 59.4: Marshall Islands (Rank: 140) 44.8: Kiribati (Rank: 172) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of getting electricity is determined by sorting their scores for getting electricity. These scores are the simple average of the scores for all the component indicators except the price of electricity. Figure – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) 120 1200 Cost (% of income per capita) 100 1000 80 800 Time (days) 60 600 40 400 20 200 0 0 1 *2 3 *4 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a different procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://doingbusiness.org/en/methodology). For details on the procedures Page 16 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu reflected here, see the summary below. Figure – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 6 5 5 Index score 4 4.0 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Page 17 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedures Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Submit application to Unelco and await estimate 30 calendar days USD 0 Agency : Unelco The application for connection can be submitted in person or by mail and the following documents should be attached to the application: 1) Land tile showing all cadastral limits (Electronic version georeferenced). The land title must show clearly that the applicant is the owner. The land in question must also show evidence of roads or easement up to the existing electricity grid. 2) Calculation of Power requirement 3) Building plan showing service point The utility is in charge of designing the details of the external connection works and related project management activities. 2 Receive external site inspection by Unelco for preparing technical study 1 calendar day USD 0 Agency : Unelco Unelco visits the site for a technical study after the application for connection is submitted. Someone from the applicant’s party has to be present during the inspection. 3 Await completion of external works by Unelco 90 calendar days VUV 3,244,444.44 Agency : Unelco The external works are project-managed by the Utility. The utility may involve third-party subcontractors to carry out the works or part thereof. 4 Sign supply contract and pay security deposit for electricity to flow 30 calendar days VUV 128,571 Agency : Unelco The customer has to sign a supply contract right after the commissioning of the works and before electricity starts flowing. When the customer signs a supply contract he/she has to pay a deposit. The security deposit is based on load the customer is subscribing to. There is no interest paid on the security deposit and it is returned at the end of the contract. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 18 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Getting Electricity in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index (0-8) 5 Total duration and frequency of outages per customer a year (0-3) 1 System average interruption duration index (SAIDI) 7.3 System average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) 5.1 What is the minimum outage time (in minutes) that the utility considers for the calculation of SAIDI/SAIFI 3.0 Mechanisms for monitoring outages (0-1) 1 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to monitor outages? Yes Mechanisms for restoring service (0-1) 1 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to restore service? Yes Regulatory monitoring (0-1) 1 Does a regulator—that is, an entity separate from the utility—monitor the utility’s performance on reliability of supply? Yes Financial deterrents aimed at limiting outages (0-1) 1 Does the utility either pay compensation to customers or face fines by the regulator (or both) if outages exceed a certain cap? Yes Communication of tariffs and tariff changes (0-1) 0 Are effective tariffs available online? Yes Link to the website, if available online UNELCO.eNGie.com/ima ges/doc/electricityrate.pdf http://www.ura.gov.vu/inde x.php? option=com_content&view =article&id=68&Itemid=98 &lang=en Are customers notified of a change in tariff ahead of the billing cycle? No Note: If the duration and frequency of outages is 100 or less, the economy is eligible to score on the Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index. If the duration and frequency of outages is not available, or is over 100, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. If the minimum outage time considered for SAIDI/SAIFI is over 5 minutes, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. Page 19 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Registering Property This topic examines the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute. In addition, the topic also measures the quality of the land administration system in each economy. The quality of land administration index has five dimensions: reliability of infrastructure, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution, and equal access to property rights. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally transfer title on immovable property To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the parties to the (number) transaction, the property and the procedures are used. • Preregistration procedures (for example, checking for liens, The parties (buyer and seller): notarizing sales agreement, paying property transfer taxes) - Are limited liability companies (or the legal equivalent). • Registration procedures in the economy's largest business city. - Are located in the periurban (that is, on the outskirts of the city but still within its official limits) • Postregistration procedures (for example, filling title with area of the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the municipality) second largest business city. - Are 100% domestically and privately owned. Time required to complete each procedure (calendar days) - Perform general commercial activities. • Does not include time spent gathering information The property (fully owned by the seller): • Each procedure starts on a separate day - though procedures - Has a value of 50 times income per capita, which equals the sale price. that can be fully completed online are an exception to this rule - Is fully owned by the seller. • Procedure is considered completed once final document is - Has no mortgages attached and has been under the same ownership for the past 10 years. received - Is registered in the land registry or cadastre, or both, and is free of title disputes. - Is located in a periurban commercial zone (that is, on the outskirts of the city but still within its • No prior contact with officials official limits), and no rezoning is required. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of property - Consists of land and a building. The land area is 557.4 square meters (6,000 square feet). A two- value) story warehouse of 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) is located on the land. The warehouse is 10 years old, is in good condition, has no heating system and complies with all safety standards, • Official costs only (such as administrative fees, duties and building codes and legal requirements. The property, consisting of land and building, will be taxes). transferred in its entirety. • Value Added Tax, Capital Gains Tax and illicit payments are - Will not be subject to renovations or additional construction following the purchase. excluded - Has no trees, natural water sources, natural reserves or historical monuments of any kind. - Will not be used for special purposes, and no special permits, such as for residential use, Quality of land administration index (0-30) industrial plants, waste storage or certain types of agricultural activities, are required. - Has no occupants, and no other party holds a legal interest in it. • Reliability of infrastructure index (0-8) • Transparency of information index (0–6) • Geographic coverage index (0–8) • Land dispute resolution index (0–8) • Equal access to property rights index (-2–0) Page 20 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Registering Property - Vanuatu Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Procedures (number) 4 5.5 4.7 1 (5 Economies) Time (days) 58 71.9 23.6 1 (2 Economies) Cost (% of property value) 7.0 4.5 4.2 0.0 (Saudi Arabia) Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 18.5 16.2 23.2 None in 2018/19 Figure – Registering Property in Vanuatu – Score 75.0 72.7 53.2 61.7 Procedures Time Cost Quality of the land administration index Figure – Registering Property in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Registering Property Score 0 100 69.1: Samoa (Rank: 68) 65.6: Vanuatu (Rank: 84) 57.5: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 49.1: Kiribati (Rank: 150) 0.0: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 187) 0.0: Marshall Islands (Rank: 187) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of registering property is determined by sorting their scores for registering property. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. Page 21 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Registering Property in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost Time (days) Cost (% of property value) 6 50 5 Cost (% of property value) 40 4 Time (days) 30 3 20 2 10 1 0 0 1 *2 3 4 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a different procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://doingbusiness.org/en/methodology). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary below. Page 22 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Registering Property in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 20 18.5 18 16.2 16 Index score 14 12.5 12 10 9.0 8 6 4 2 0 No Practice No Practice Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Details – Registering Property in Vanuatu – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedures Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Payment of stamp duty at the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission 7 days VUV 325,064.84; (2% Agency : Vanuatu Financial Services Commission stamp duty on the value of Transfer of a lease is done by mean of an instrument in the prescribed form. The seller must the lease (stamp duty)) provide the warranty that there is no outstanding payment (such as the ren). The buyer should provide warranty that he/she will pay the rent and other obligations. After the agreement is executed by the parties, with no need to engage the services of a lawyer, the stamp duty must be paid. The stamp duty is paid at the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission. The Controller of Stamp Duties may take from one to 14 days to stamp the document. It depends on what type of lease documents are submitted to that Office. The Controller of Stamp Duty may require further details from the parties to assist that office in assessing duty. In cases a lease is transferred, before the parties may execute a transfer, the vendor (registered proprietor of the registered Lease) must have ready to hand to the purchaser a consent granted by the lessor (either the Government or custom owners as the case may be) agreeing to such transfer of the interests comprised in the lease. The stamp duties act establishes stamp duty at 2% of property value. The 2007 amendment reduced it from 5% to 2%. 2 Check for encumbrances 1 day VUV 1,000 Agency : Department of Lands Records The buyer usually requests a search on the property. The checking is done before so that the discharge of mortgage can be done prior to the registration. 3 Obtain Ministerial consent to transfer the lease 21 days VUV 3,375 Agency : Lands Department According to the law, it is mandatory to request the consent of the Minister of lands to transfer property, if the property is located in an urban area. In practice, there is a sale agreement between the parties, and there is no need to hire a lawyer or a real estate agent. All relevant documents are provided at the land registry. The land department will verify that all taxes are paid. The State Law office will provide its legal advice on the documents to the Minister. The consent is picked up at the department of lands and surveys. Once permission is granted (and all encumbrances cleared – see following Procedure), ownership is transferred, and payment to the seller is made. 4 Apply for and obtain registration of the deed of transfer at the Department of Lands 30 days VUV 812,662.09; (5% Records registration fee on the Agency : Department of Lands Records value of the lease When the consent to transfer is granted, the documents are filed at the Department of Lands (registration fee)) Records where payment of the registration fees is made. The fee is established in the Land lease act. The amendment of 2004 increased it from 2% to 6% and the amendment of 2006 decreased it from 6% to 5%. The Department of Lands Records is computerized, and this has significantly reduced the time it takes to process new requests. When a company is involved, the memorandum and articles of association, as well as the certificate of incorporation, must be provided at registration. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 23 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Registering Property in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 18.5 Reliability of infrastructure index (0-8) 6.0 Type of land registration system in the economy: Title Registration System What is the institution in charge of immovable property registration? Department of Lands Records In what format are past and newly issued land records kept at the immovable property registry of the largest Computer/Scanned 1.0 business city of the economy —in a paper format or in a computerized format (scanned or fully digital)? Is there a comprehensive and functional electronic database for checking for encumbrances (liens, mortgages, Yes 1.0 restrictions and the like)? Institution in charge of the plans showing legal boundaries in the largest business city: Land Survey and Mapping department of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources In what format are past and newly issued cadastral plans kept at the mapping agency of the largest business Computer/Scanned 1.0 city of the economy—in a paper format or in a computerized format (scanned or fully digital)? Is there an electronic database for recording boundaries, checking plans and providing cadastral information Yes 1.0 (geographic information system)? Is the information recorded by the immovable property registration agency and the cadastral or mapping agency Different databases 1.0 kept in a single database, in different but linked databases or in separate databases? but linked Do the immovable property registration agency and cadastral or mapping agency use the same identification Yes 1.0 number for properties? Transparency of information index (0–6) 4.5 Who is able to obtain information on land ownership at the agency in charge of immovable property registration Anyone who pays the 1.0 in the largest business city? official fee Is the list of documents that are required to complete any type of property transaction made publicly available– Yes, online 0.5 and if so, how? Link for online access: http://www.mol.gov.vu /index.php/en/registra tion-checklist/256-art- land-reg-checklist Is the applicable fee schedule for any type of property transaction at the agency in charge of immovable Yes, online 0.5 property registration in the largest business city made publicly available–and if so, how? Link for online access: http://www.mol.gov.vu /index.php/en/registra tion-fees Does the agency in charge of immovable property registration agency formally commit to deliver a legally No 0.0 binding document that proves property ownership within a specific timeframe –and if so, how does it communicate the service standard? Link for online access: Is there a specific and independent mechanism for filing complaints about a problem that occurred at the agency Yes 1.0 in charge of immovable property registration? Contact information: Are there publicly available official statistics tracking the number of transactions at the immovable property No 0.0 registration agency? Number of property transfers in the largest business city in 2018: Who is able to consult maps of land plots in the largest business city? Anyone who pays the 0.5 official fee Is the applicable fee schedule for accessing maps of land plots made publicly available—and if so, how? Yes, online 0.5 Page 24 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Link for online access: http://www.mol.gov.vu /index.php/en/land- survey-2/264-lands- ls-maps-available-for- sale-1 http://www.mol.gov.vu /attachments/article/2 64/Map%20Printing% 20Fees.pdf Does the cadastral/mapping agency formally specifies the timeframe to deliver an updated cadastral plan—and No 0.0 if so, how does it communicate the service standard? Link for online access: Is there a specific and independent mechanism for filing complaints about a problem that occurred at the Yes 0.5 cadastral or mapping agency? Contact information: Geographic coverage index (0–8) 4.0 Are all privately held land plots in the largest business city formally registered at the immovable property No 0.0 registry? Are all privately held land plots in the economy formally registered at the immovable property registry? No 0.0 Are all privately held land plots in the largest business city mapped? Yes 2.0 Are all privately held land plots in the economy mapped? Yes 2.0 Land dispute resolution index (0–8) 4.0 Does the law require that all property sale transactions be registered at the immovable property registry to make Yes 1.5 them opposable to third parties? Legal basis: Land Leases Act part 4 Is the system of immovable property registration subject to a state or private guarantee? Yes 0.5 Type of guarantee: State guarantee Legal basis: Article 101 Land Leases Act Is there a is a specific, out-of-court compensation mechanism to cover for losses incurred by parties who No 0.0 engaged in good faith in a property transaction based on erroneous information certified by the immovable property registry? Legal basis: Article 101 Land Leases Act Does the legal system require a control of legality of the documents necessary for a property transaction (e.g., Yes 0.5 checking the compliance of contracts with requirements of the law)? If yes, who is responsible for checking the legality of the documents? Registrar; Notary; Does the legal system require verification of the identity of the parties to a property transaction? Yes 0.5 If yes, who is responsible for verifying the identity of the parties? Registrar; Notary; Is there a national database to verify the accuracy of government issued identity documents? No 0.0 What is the Court of first instance in charge of a case involving a standard land dispute between two local Land Tribunal businesses over tenure rights for a property worth 50 times gross national income (GNI) per capita and located in the largest business city? How long does it take on average to obtain a decision from the first-instance court for such a case (without Between 2 and 3 1.0 appeal)? years Are there publicly available statistics on the number of land disputes at the economy level in the first instance No 0.0 court? Number of land disputes in the economy in 2018: Equal access to property rights index (-2–0) 0.0 Do unmarried men and unmarried women have equal ownership rights to property? Yes Page 25 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Do married men and married women have equal ownership rights to property? Yes 0.0 Page 26 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Getting Credit This topic explores two sets of issues—the strength of credit reporting systems and the effectiveness of collateral and bankruptcy laws in facilitating lending. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Strength of legal rights index (0–12) Doing Business assesses the sharing of credit information and the legal rights of borrowers and lenders with respect to secured transactions through 2 sets of indicators. The depth of credit • Rights of borrowers and lenders through collateral laws (0-10) information index measures rules and practices affecting the coverage, scope and accessibility of • Protection of secured creditors’ rights through bankruptcy laws credit information available through a credit registry or a credit bureau. The strength of legal rights (0-2) index measures the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. For each economy it is first determined whether a unitary Depth of credit information index (0–8) secured transactions system exists. Then two case scenarios, case A and case B, are used to • Scope and accessibility of credit information distributed by determine how a nonpossessory security interest is created, publicized and enforced according to credit bureaus and credit registries (0-8) the law. Special emphasis is given to how the collateral registry operates (if registration of security interests is possible). The case scenarios involve a secured borrower, company ABC, and a Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) secured lender, BizBank. • Number of individuals and firms listed in largest credit bureau In some economies the legal framework for secured transactions will allow only case A or case B as a percentage of adult population (not both) to apply. Both cases examine the same set of legal provisions relating to the use of movable collateral. Credit registry coverage (% of adults) • Number of individuals and firms listed in credit registry as a Several assumptions about the secured borrower (ABC) and lender (BizBank) are used: percentage of adult population - ABC is a domestic limited liability company (or its legal equivalent). - ABC has up to 50 employees. - ABC has its headquarters and only base of operations in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. - Both ABC and BizBank are 100% domestically owned. The case scenarios also involve assumptions. In case A, as collateral for the loan, ABC grants BizBank a nonpossessory security interest in one category of movable assets, for example, its machinery or its inventory. ABC wants to keep both possession and ownership of the collateral. In economies where the law does not allow nonpossessory security interests in movable property, ABC and BizBank use a fiduciary transfer-of-title arrangement (or a similar substitute for nonpossessory security interests). In case B, ABC grants BizBank a business charge, enterprise charge, floating charge or any charge that gives BizBank a security interest over ABC’s combined movable assets (or as much of ABC’s movable assets as possible). ABC keeps ownership and possession of the assets. Page 27 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Getting Credit - Vanuatu Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 11 7.1 6.1 12 (5 Economies) Depth of credit information index (0-8) 4 4.5 6.8 8 (53 Economies) Credit registry coverage (% of adults) 0.0 16.6 24.4 100.0 (2 Economies) Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) 17.6 23.8 66.7 100.0 (14 Economies) Figure – Getting Credit in Vanuatu – Score 75.0 Score - Getting Credit Figure – Getting Credit in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Getting Credit Score 0 100 75.0: Vanuatu (Rank: 37) 58.0: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 50.0: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 104) 50.0: Marshall Islands (Rank: 104) 45.0: Samoa (Rank: 119) 20.0: Kiribati (Rank: 173) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of getting credit is determined by sorting their scores for getting credit. These scores are the sum of the scores for the strength of legal rights index and the depth of credit information index. Page 28 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Legal Rights in Vanuatu and comparator economies 12 11 10 10 10 9 Index Score 8 7.1 6 4 4 2 0 Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Page 29 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Legal Rights in Vanuatu Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 11 Does an integrated or unified legal framework for secured transactions that extends to the creation, publicity and enforcement of functional equivalents Yes to security interests in movable assets exist in the economy? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in a single category of movable assets, without requiring a specific description Yes of collateral? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in substantially all of its assets, without requiring a specific description of Yes collateral? May a security right extend to future or after-acquired assets, and does it extend automatically to the products, proceeds and replacements of the Yes original assets? Is a general description of debts and obligations permitted in collateral agreements; can all types of debts and obligations be secured between parties; Yes and can the collateral agreement include a maximum amount for which the assets are encumbered? Is a collateral registry in operation for both incorporated and non-incorporated entities, that is unified geographically and by asset type, with an Yes electronic database indexed by debtor's name? Does a notice-based collateral registry exist in which all functional equivalents can be registered? Yes Does a modern collateral registry exist in which registrations, amendments, cancellations and searches can be performed online by any interested third Yes party? Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a debtor defaults outside an insolvency procedure? Yes Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a business is liquidated? Yes Are secured creditors subject to an automatic stay on enforcement when a debtor enters a court-supervised reorganization procedure? Does the law No protect secured creditors’ rights by providing clear grounds for relief from the stay and sets a time limit for it? Does the law allow parties to agree on out of court enforcement at the time a security interest is created? Does the law allow the secured creditor to sell Yes the collateral through public auction or private tender, as well as, for the secured creditor to keep the asset in satisfaction of the debt? Figure – Credit Information in Vanuatu and comparator economies 5 4.5 4.5 4 4 Index Score 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Page 30 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Credit Information in Vanuatu Depth of credit information index (0-8) Credit bureau Credit registry Score Are data on both firms and individuals distributed? Yes No 1 Are both positive and negative credit data distributed? No No 0 Are data from retailers or utility companies - in addition to data from banks and No No 0 financial institutions - distributed? Are at least 2 years of historical data distributed? (Credit bureaus and registries Yes No 1 that distribute more than 10 years of negative data or erase data on defaults as soon as they are repaid obtain a score of 0 for this component.) Are data on loan amounts below 1% of income per capita distributed? Yes No 1 By law, do borrowers have the right to access their data in the credit bureau or No No 0 credit registry? Can banks and financial institutions access borrowers’ credit information online Yes No 1 (for example, through an online platform, a system-to-system connection or both)? Are bureau or registry credit scores offered as a value-added service to help No No 0 banks and financial institutions assess the creditworthiness of borrowers? Note: An economy receives a score of 1 if there is a "yes" to either bureau or registry. If the credit bureau or registry is not operational or covers less than 5% of the adult population, the total score on the depth of credit information index is 0. Coverage Credit bureau Credit registry Number of individuals 24,934 0 Number of firms 5,812 0 Total 30,746 0 Percentage of adult population 17.6 0.0 Page 31 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Protecting Minority Investors This topic measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against misuse of corporate assets by directors for their personal gain as well as shareholder rights, governance safeguards and corporate transparency requirements that reduce the risk of abuse. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions • Extent of disclosure index (0–10): Disclosure, review, and To make the data comparable across economies, a case study uses several assumptions about approval requirements for related-party transactions the business and the transaction. • Extent of director liability index (0–10): Ability of minority shareholders to sue and hold interested directors liable for The business (Buyer): prejudicial related-party transactions; Available legal - Is a publicly traded corporation listed on the economy’s most important stock exchange. remedies (damages, disgorgement of profits, disqualification - Has a board of directors and a chief executive officer (CEO) who may legally act on behalf of from managerial position(s) for one year or more, rescission of Buyer where permitted, even if this is not specifically required by law. the transaction) - Has a supervisory board in economies with a two-tier board system on which Mr. James appointed 60% of the shareholder-elected members. • Ease of shareholder suits index (0–10): Access to internal - Has not adopted bylaws or articles of association that go beyond the minimum requirements. corporate documents; Evidence obtainable during trial and allocation of legal expenses Does not follow codes, principles, recommendations or guidelines that are not mandatory. - Is a manufacturing company with its own distribution network. • Extent of conflict of interest regulation index (0-30): Sum of the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of The transaction involves the following details: shareholder suits indices - Mr. James owns 60% of Buyer, sits on Buyer’s board of directors and elected two directors to • Extent of shareholder rights index (0-6): Shareholders’ rights Buyer’s five-member board. and role in major corporate decisions - Mr. James also owns 90% of Seller, a company that operates a chain of retail hardware stores. Seller recently closed a large number of its stores. • Extent of ownership and control index (0-7): Governance - Mr. James proposes that Buyer purchase Seller’s unused fleet of trucks to expand Buyer’s safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control distribution of its food products, a proposal to which Buyer agrees. The price is equal to 10% of and entrenchment Buyer’s assets and is higher than the market value. • Extent of corporate transparency index (0-7): Corporate - The proposed transaction is part of the company’s principal activity and is not outside the transparency on ownership stakes, compensation, audits and authority of the company. financial prospects - Buyer enters into the transaction. All required approvals are obtained, and all required disclosures made—that is, the transaction was not entered into fraudulently. • Extent of shareholder governance index (0–20): Sum of the - The transaction causes damages to Buyer. Shareholders sue Mr. James and the executives and extent of shareholders rights, extent of ownership and control directors that approved the transaction. and extent of corporate transparency indices • Strength of minority investor protection index (0–50): Sum of the extent of conflict of interest regulation and extent of shareholder governance indices Page 32 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Protecting Minority Investors - Vanuatu Stock exchange information Stock exchange Stock exchange URL Listed firms with equity securities 0 City Covered Port Vila Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 5.0 5.9 6.5 10 (13 Economies) Extent of director liability index (0-10) 6.0 5.2 5.3 10 (3 Economies) Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 5.0 6.7 7.3 10 (Djibouti) Extent of shareholder rights index (0-6) 0.0 2.0 4.7 6 (19 Economies) Extent of ownership and control index (0-7) 0.0 2.4 4.5 7 (9 Economies) Extent of corporate transparency index (0-7) 0.0 2.6 5.7 7 (13 Economies) Figure – Protecting Minority in Vanuatu – Score 32.0 Score - Protecting Minority Investors Figure – Protecting Minority Investors in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Protecting Minority Investors Score 0 100 49.7: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 40.0: Samoa (Rank: 128) 38.0: Kiribati (Rank: 136) 32.0: Vanuatu (Rank: 147) 20.0: Marshall Islands (Rank: 179) 16.0: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 185) Note: The ranking of economies on the strength of minority investor protections is determined by sorting their scores for protecting minority investors. These scores are the simple average of the scores for the extent of conflict of interest regulation index and the extent of shareholder governance index. Page 33 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Protecting Minority Investors in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Vanuatu 0 6 5 0 5 Kiribati 0 5 6 0 8 Marshall Islands 0 2 0 8 Micronesia, Fed. Sts. 0 8 Samoa 0 6 5 0 9 OECD high income 5.6 5.6 6.6 4.3 4.5 7.4 East Asia & Pacific 3.1 5.1 6.4 2.9 2.4 6.3 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Sub-Indicator Score Extent of corporate transparency index (0-7) Extent of director liability index (0-10) Extent of disclosure index (0-10) Extent of ownership and control index (0-7) Extent of shareholder rights index (0-6) Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) Page 34 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Protecting Minority Investors in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Extent of conflict of interest regulation index (0-30) Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 5.0 Whose decision is sufficient to approve the Buyer-Seller transaction? (0-3) Shareholders or 1.0 board of directors including interested parties Must an external body review the terms of the transaction before it takes place? (0-1) No 0.0 Must Mr. James disclose his conflict of interest to the board of directors? (0-2) Full disclosure of all 2.0 material facts Must Buyer disclose the transaction in periodic filings (e.g. annual reports)? (0-2) Disclosure on the 2.0 transaction and on the conflict of interest Must Buyer immediately disclose the transaction to the public? (0-2) No disclosure 0.0 obligation Extent of director liability index (0-10) 6.0 Can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital sue for the damage the transaction caused to Yes 1.0 Buyer? (0-1) Can shareholders hold Mr. James liable for the damage the transaction caused to Buyer? (0-2) Liable if unfair or 2.0 prejudicial Can shareholders hold the other directors liable for the damage the transaction caused to Buyer? (0-2) Liable if negligent 1.0 Must Mr. James pay damages for the harm caused to Buyer upon a successful claim by shareholders? (0-1) Yes 1.0 Must Mr. James repay profits made from the transaction upon a successful claim by shareholders? (0-1) Yes 1.0 Is Mr. James disqualified upon a successful claim by shareholders? (0-1) No 0.0 Can a court void the transaction upon a successful claim by shareholders? (0-2) Only in case of fraud 0.0 or bad faith Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 5.0 Before suing, can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital inspect the transaction documents? No 0.0 (0-1) Can the plaintiff obtain any documents from the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-3) Any relevant 3.0 document Can the plaintiff request categories of documents from the defendant without identifying specific ones? (0-1) No 0.0 Can the plaintiff directly question the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-2) No 0.0 Is the level of proof required for civil suits lower than that of criminal cases? (0-1) Yes 1.0 Can shareholder plaintiffs recover their legal expenses from the company? (0-2) Yes if successful 1.0 Extent of shareholder governance index (0-20) Extent of shareholder rights index (0-6) 0.0 Does the sale of 51% of Buyer's assets require shareholder approval? Yes 1.0 Can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital call for a meeting of shareholders? Yes 1.0 Must Buyer obtain its shareholders’ approval every time it issues new shares? Yes 1.0 Do shareholders automatically receive preemption rights every time Buyer issues new shares? No 0.0 Do shareholders elect and dismiss the external auditor? Yes 1.0 Are changes to the rights of a class of shares only possible if the holders of the affected shares approve? Yes 1.0 Extent of ownership and control index (0-7) 0.0 Page 35 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Is it forbidden to appoint the same individual as CEO and chairperson of the board of directors? No 0.0 Must the board of directors include independent and nonexecutive board members? No 0.0 Can shareholders remove members of the board of directors without cause before the end of their term? Yes 1.0 Must the board of directors include a separate audit committee exclusively comprising board members? No 0.0 Must a potential acquirer make a tender offer to all shareholders upon acquiring 50% of Buyer? No 0.0 Must Buyer pay declared dividends within a maximum period set by law? No 0.0 Is a subsidiary prohibited from acquiring shares issued by its parent company? Yes 1.0 Extent of corporate transparency index (0-7) 0.0 Must Buyer disclose direct and indirect beneficial ownership stakes representing 5%? No 0.0 Must Buyer disclose information about board members’ primary employment and directorships in other No 0.0 companies? Must Buyer disclose the compensation of individual managers? No 0.0 Must a detailed notice of general meeting be sent 21 days before the meeting? No 0.0 Can shareholders representing 5% of Buyer’s share capital put items on the general meeting agenda? Yes 1.0 Must Buyer's annual financial statements be audited by an external auditor? Yes 1.0 Must Buyer disclose its audit reports to the public? No 0.0 Page 36 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Paying Taxes This topic records the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as the administrative burden of paying taxes and contributions and complying with postfiling procedures (VAT refund and tax audit). The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019 covering for the Paying Taxes indicator calendar year 2018 (January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018). See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Tax payments for a manufacturing company in 2018 (number Using a case scenario, Doing Business records taxes and mandatory contributions a medium size per year adjusted for electronic and joint filing and payment) company must pay in a year, and measures the administrative burden of paying taxes, contributions and dealing with postfiling processes. Information is also compiled on frequency of • Total number of taxes and contributions paid or withheld, filing and payments, time taken to comply with tax laws, time taken to comply with the including consumption taxes (value added tax, sales tax or requirements of postfiling processes and time waiting. goods and service tax) • Method and frequency of filing and payment To make data comparable across economies, several assumptions are used: - TaxpayerCo is a medium-size business that started operations on January 1, 2017. It produces Time required to comply with 3 major taxes (hours per year) ceramic flowerpots and sells them at retail. All taxes and contributions recorded are paid in the second year of operation (calendar year 2018). Taxes and mandatory contributions are measured • Collecting information, computing tax payable at all levels of government. • Preparing separate tax accounting books, if required • Completing tax return, filing with agencies The VAT refund process: - In June 2018, TaxpayerCo. makes a large capital purchase: the value of the machine is 65 times • Arranging payment or withholding income per capita of the economy. Sales are equally spread per month (1,050 times income per capita divided by 12) and cost of goods sold are equally expensed per month (875 times income Total tax and contribution rate (% of commercial profits) per capita divided by 12). The machinery seller is registered for VAT and excess input VAT incurred • Profit or corporate income tax in June will be fully recovered after four consecutive months if the VAT rate is the same for inputs, sales and the machine and the tax reporting period is every month. Input VAT will exceed Output • Social contributions, labor taxes paid by employer VAT in June 2018. • Property and property transfer taxes The corporate income tax audit process: • Dividend, capital gains, financial transactions taxes - An error in calculation of income tax liability (for example, use of incorrect tax depreciation rates, • Waste collection, vehicle, road and other taxes or incorrectly treating an expense as tax deductible) leads to an incorrect income tax return and a corporate income tax underpayment. TaxpayerCo. discovered the error and voluntarily notified the Postfiling Index tax authority. The value of the underpaid income tax liability is 5% of the corporate income tax • Time to comply with VAT refund (hours) liability due. TaxpayerCo. submits corrected information after the deadline for submitting the annual tax return, but within the tax assessment period. • Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks) • Time to comply with a corporate income tax correction (hours) • Time to complete a corporate income tax correction (weeks) Page 37 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Paying Taxes - Vanuatu Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Payments (number per year) 31 20.6 10.3 3 (2 Economies) Time (hours per year) 120 173.0 158.8 49 (3 Economies) Total tax and contribution rate (% of profit) 8.5 33.6 39.9 26.1 (33 Economies) Postfiling index (0-100) 69.0 56.4 86.7 None in 2018/19 Figure – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu – Score 53.3 89.0 100.0 69.0 Payments Time Total tax and contribution rate Postfiling index Figure – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Paying Taxes Score 0 100 77.8: Vanuatu (Rank: 67) 76.1: Marshall Islands (Rank: 79) 75.7: Samoa (Rank: 82) 73.6: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 71.4: Kiribati (Rank: 98) 68.8: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 111) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of paying taxes is determined by sorting their scores for paying taxes. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators, with a threshold and a nonlinear transformation applied to one of the component indicators, the total tax and contribution rate. The threshold is defined as the total tax and contribution rate at the 15th percentile of the overall distribution for all years included in the analysis up to and including Doing Business 2015, which is 26.1%. All economies with a total tax and contribution rate below this threshold receive the same score as the economy at the threshold. Page 38 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 90 86.6 80 69.0 70 Index score 60 56.4 50 40 30 26.7 20 10 null null 0 Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, Samoa East Islands Fed. Asia Sts. & Pacific Page 39 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu Tax or Payments Notes on Time (hours) Statutory tax Tax base Total tax and Notes on TTCR mandatory (number) Payments rate contribution contribution rate (% of profit) Employer paid - 12.0 24.0 4% gross salaries 4.51 Social Security contributions Business license 1.0 VT 20,000- turnover 2.93 1,000,000 Municipal 2.0 various rates unimproved land 0.49 property taxes value National 2.0 various rates unimproved land 0.39 Government land value tax Vehicle tax 1.0 VT 25,000- engine size 0.16 60,000 Value added tax 12.0 96.0 15% value added 0.00 not included (VAT) Employee paid - 0.0 jointly 4% gross salaries 0.00 withheld Social Security contributions Stamp duty 1.0 various rates contract value 0.00 small amount Totals 31 120 8.5 Page 40 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu – Tax by Type Taxes by type Answer Profit tax (% of profit) 0.0 Labor tax and contributions (% of profit) 4.5 Other taxes (% of profit) 4.0 Page 41 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Paying Taxes in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Postfiling index (0-100) 69.0 VAT refunds Does VAT exist? Yes Does a VAT refund process exist per the case study? Yes Restrictions on VAT refund process none Percentage of cases exposed to a VAT audit (%) 75% - 100% Is there a mandatory carry forward period? No Time to comply with VAT refund (hours) 7.0 86.0 Time to obtain VAT refund (weeks) 28.0 52.1 Corporate income tax audits Does corporate income tax exist? No Percentage of cases exposed to a corporate income tax audit (%) Not applicable Time to comply with a corporate income tax correction (hours) No corporate income No CIT tax Time to complete a corporate income tax correction (weeks) No corporate income No CIT tax Notes: Names of taxes have been standardized. For instance income tax, profit tax, tax on company's income are all named corporate income tax in this table. The hours for VAT include all the VAT and sales taxes applicable. The hours for Social Security include all the hours for labor taxes and mandatory contributions in general. The postfiling index is the average of the scores on time to comply with VAT refund, time to obtain a VAT refund, time to comply with a corporate income tax correction and time to complete a corporate income tax correction. N/A = Not applicable. Page 42 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Trading across Borders Doing Business records the time and cost associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods. Doing Business measures the time and cost (excluding tariffs) associated with three sets of procedures—documentary compliance, border compliance and domestic transport—within the overall process of exporting or importing a shipment of goods. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Documentary compliance To make the data comparable across economies, a few assumptions are made about the traded goods and the transactions: • Obtaining, preparing and submitting documents during transport, clearance, inspections and port or border handling in Time: Time is measured in hours, and 1 day is 24 hours (for example, 22 days are recorded as origin economy 22×24=528 hours). If customs clearance takes 7.5 hours, the data are recorded as is. Alternatively, • Obtaining, preparing and submitting documents required by suppose documents are submitted to a customs agency at 8:00a.m., are processed overnight and destination economy and any transit economies can be picked up at 8:00a.m. the next day. The time for customs clearance would be recorded as 24 hours because the actual procedure took 24 hours. • Covers all documents required by law and in practice, including electronic submissions of information Cost: Insurance cost and informal payments for which no receipt is issued are excluded from the Border compliance costs recorded. Costs are reported in U.S. dollars. Contributors are asked to convert local currency into U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate prevailing on the day they answer the questionnaire. • Customs clearance and inspections Contributors are private sector experts in international trade logistics and are informed about • Inspections by other agencies (if applied to more than 20% of exchange rates. shipments) Assumptions of the case study: • Handling and inspections that take place at the economy’s port - For all 190 economies covered by Doing Business, it is assumed a shipment is in a warehouse in or border the largest business city of the exporting economy and travels to a warehouse in the largest business city of the importing economy. Domestic transport - It is assumed each economy imports 15 metric tons of containerized auto parts (HS 8708) from • Loading or unloading of the shipment at the warehouse or its natural import partner—the economy from which it imports the largest value (price times port/border quantity) of auto parts. It is assumed each economy exports the product of its comparative advantage (defined by the largest export value) to its natural export partner—the economy that is • Transport between warehouse and port/border the largest purchaser of this product. Shipment value is assumed to be $50,000. • Traffic delays and road police checks while shipment is en - The mode of transport is the one most widely used for the chosen export or import product and route the trading partner, as is the seaport or land border crossing. - All electronic information submissions requested by any government agency in connection with the shipment are considered to be documents obtained, prepared and submitted during the export or import process. - A port or border is a place (seaport or land border crossing) where merchandise can enter or leave an economy. - Relevant government agencies include customs, port authorities, road police, border guards, standardization agencies, ministries or departments of agriculture or industry, national security agencies and any other government authorities. Page 43 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Trading across Borders - Vanuatu Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Time to export: Border compliance (hours) 38 57.5 12.7 1 (19 Economies) Cost to export: Border compliance (USD) 709 381.1 136.8 0 (19 Economies) Time to export: Documentary compliance (hours) 72 55.6 2.3 1 (26 Economies) Cost to export: Documentary compliance (USD) 190 109.4 33.4 0 (20 Economies) Time to import: Border compliance (hours) 126 68.4 8.5 1 (25 Economies) Cost to import: Border compliance (USD) 681 422.8 98.1 0 (28 Economies) Time to import: Documentary compliance (hours) 48 53.7 3.4 1 (30 Economies) Cost to import: Documentary compliance (USD) 183 108.4 23.5 0 (30 Economies) Figure – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu – Score 76.7 33.1 58.0 52.5 55.2 43.3 80.3 73.9 Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost to to to to to to to to export: export: export: export: import: import: import: import: Border Border Documentary Documentary Border Border Documentary Documentary compliance compliance compliance compliance compliance compliance compliance compliance Figure – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Trading Across Borders Score 0 100 84.0: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 65) 78.9: Marshall Islands (Rank: 76) 71.6: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 62.1: Kiribati (Rank: 135) 59.1: Vanuatu (Rank: 148) 57.8: Samoa (Rank: 154) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of trading across borders is determined by sorting their scores for trading across borders. These scores are the simple average of the scores for the time and cost for documentary compliance and border compliance to export and import. Page 44 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu – Time and Cost Time (hours) Cost (USD) 140 126 800 709 681 120 700 Time (hours) 100 600 Cost (USD) 500 80 72 400 60 48 300 38 190 40 183 200 20 100 0 0 Export Export Import Import - - - - Border Documentary Border Documentary Compliance Compliance Compliance Compliance Page 45 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu Characteristics Export Import Product HS 15 : Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their HS 8708: Parts and accessories of motor vehicles cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes Trade partner Malaysia Australia Border Port Vila port Port Vila port Distance (km) 6 6 Domestic transport time (hours) 1 1 Domestic transport cost (USD) 193 191 Details – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu – Components of Border Compliance Time to Complete (hours) Associated Costs (USD) Export: Clearance and inspections required by 2.0 56.0 customs authorities Export: Clearance and inspections required by 0.0 0.0 agencies other than customs Export: Port or border handling 36.0 653.0 Import: Clearance and inspections required by 78.0 110.0 customs authorities Import: Clearance and inspections required by 0.0 0.0 agencies other than customs Import: Port or border handling 126.0 570.6 Page 46 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Trading across Borders in Vanuatu – Trade Documents Export Import Bill of lading Bill of lading Customs Export Declaration Cargo release order Cargo release order Customs Import Declaration Packing list Customs release order Commercial invoice Commercial invoice SOLAS certificate Packing list SOLAS certificate Page 47 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Enforcing Contracts The enforcing contracts indicator measures the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court, and the quality of judicial processes index, evaluating whether each economy has adopted a series of good practices that promote quality and efficiency in the court system. The most recent round of data collection was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to enforce a contract through the courts The dispute in the case study involves the breach of a sales contract between two domestic (calendar days) businesses. The case study assumes that the court hears an expert on the quality of the goods in dispute. This distinguishes the case from simple debt enforcement. • Time to file and serve the case • Time for trial and to obtain the judgment To make the data on the time and comparable across economies, several assumptions about the case are used: • Time to enforce the judgment - The dispute concerns a lawful transaction between two businesses (Seller and Buyer), both Cost required to enforce a contract through the courts (% of located in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the claim value) second largest business city. - The Buyer orders custom-made furniture, then fails to pay alleging that the goods are not of • Average attorney fees adequate quality. • Court costs - The value of the dispute is 200% of the income per capita or the equivalent in local currency of USD 5,000, whichever is greater. • Enforcement costs - The Seller sues the Buyer before the court with jurisdiction over commercial cases worth 200% of income per capita or $5,000 whichever is greater. Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) - The Seller requests the pretrial attachment of the defendant’s movable assets to secure the • Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) claim. - The claim is disputed on the merits because of Buyer’s allegation that the quality of the goods • Case management (0-6) was not adequate. • Court automation (0-4) - The judge decides in favor of the seller; there is no appeal. - The Seller enforces the judgment through a public sale of the Buyer’s movable assets. • Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) Page 48 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Enforcing Contracts - Vanuatu Standardized Case Claim value VUV 656,447 Court name Port Vila Magistrates Court City Covered Port Vila Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Time (days) 430 581.1 589.6 120 (Singapore) Cost (% of claim value) 56.0 47.2 21.5 0.1 (Bhutan) Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 6.5 8.1 11.7 None in 2018/19 Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu – Score 74.6 37.1 36.1 Time Cost Quality of judicial processes index Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Enforcing Contracts Score 0 100 58.6: Samoa (Rank: 86) 55.9: Marshall Islands (Rank: 106) 53.4: Kiribati (Rank: 121) 53.0: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 49.3: Vanuatu (Rank: 138) 29.4: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 184) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of enforcing contracts is determined by sorting their scores for enforcing contracts. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. Page 49 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu – Time and Cost Time (days) Cost (% of claim value) 1000 66.0 70 Cost (% of claim value) 885 56.0 60 800 47.2 Time (days) 660 50 581.1 616 589.6 600 40 32.1 455 430 400 25.8 24.4 30 21.5 20 200 10 0 0 East Kiribati Marshall Micronesia, OECD Samoa Vanuatu Asia Islands Fed. high & Sts. income Pacific Page 50 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Vanuatu 2 1 0.5 3 Kiribati 1.5 1 0.5 3 Marshall Islands 2.5 2 0.5 3 Micronesia, Fed. Sts. 2 1 0.5 1 Samoa 2.5 0 0.5 2.5 OECD high income 2.5 3.2 2.4 3.6 East Asia & Pacific 2.2 2.2 1.3 3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Sub-Indicator Score Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) Case management (0-6) Court automation (0-4) Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) Details – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu Indicator Time (days) 430 Filing and service 30 Trial and judgment 200 Enforcement of judgment 200 Cost (% of claim value) 56.0 Attorney fees 40 Court fees 6 Enforcement fees 10 Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 6.5 Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) 3.0 Case management (0-6) 1.0 Court automation (0-4) 0.5 Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) 2.0 Page 51 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Enforcing Contracts in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 6.5 Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) 3.0 1. Is there a court or division of a court dedicated solely to hearing commercial cases? No 0.0 2. Small claims court 1.5 2.a. Is there a small claims court or a fast-track procedure for small claims? Yes 2.b. If yes, is self-representation allowed? Yes 3. Is pretrial attachment available? Yes 1.0 4. Are new cases assigned randomly to judges? Yes, but manual 0.5 5. Does a woman's testimony carry the same evidentiary weight in court as a man's? Yes 0.0 Case management (0-6) 1.0 1. Time standards 1.0 1.a. Are there laws setting overall time standards for key court events in a civil case? Yes 1.b. If yes, are the time standards set for at least three court events? Yes 1.c. Are these time standards respected in more than 50% of cases? Yes 2. Adjournments 0.0 2.a. Does the law regulate the maximum number of adjournments that can be granted? No 2.b. Are adjournments limited to unforeseen and exceptional circumstances? No 2.c. If rules on adjournments exist, are they respected in more than 50% of cases? n.a. 3. Can two of the following four reports be generated about the competent court: (i) time to disposition report; (ii) No 0.0 clearance rate report; (iii) age of pending cases report; and (iv) single case progress report? 4. Is a pretrial conference among the case management techniques used before the competent court? No 0.0 5. Are there any electronic case management tools in place within the competent court for use by judges? No 0.0 6. Are there any electronic case management tools in place within the competent court for use by lawyers? No 0.0 Court automation (0-4) 0.5 1. Can the initial complaint be filed electronically through a dedicated platform within the competent court? No 0.0 2. Is it possible to carry out service of process electronically for claims filed before the competent court? No 0.0 3. Can court fees be paid electronically within the competent court? No 0.0 4. Publication of judgments 0.5 4.a Are judgments rendered in commercial cases at all levels made available to the general public No through publication in official gazettes, in newspapers or on the internet or court website? 4.b. Are judgments rendered in commercial cases at the appellate and supreme court level made Yes available to the general public through publication in official gazettes, in newspapers or on the internet or court website? Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) 2.0 1. Arbitration 1.0 1.a. Is domestic commercial arbitration governed by a consolidated law or consolidated chapter or No section of the applicable code of civil procedure encompassing substantially all its aspects? 1.b. Are there any commercial disputes—aside from those that deal with public order or public policy— No that cannot be submitted to arbitration? 1.c. Are valid arbitration clauses or agreements usually enforced by the courts? Yes Page 52 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu 2. Mediation/Conciliation 1.0 2.a. Is voluntary mediation or conciliation available? Yes 2.b. Are mediation, conciliation or both governed by a consolidated law or consolidated chapter or Yes section of the applicable code of civil procedure encompassing substantially all their aspects (for example, definition, aim and scope of application, desig 2.c. Are there financial incentives for parties to attempt mediation or conciliation (i.e., if mediation or No conciliation is successful, a refund of court filing fees, income tax credits or the like)? Page 53 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Resolving Insolvency Doing Business studies the time, cost and outcome of insolvency proceedings involving domestic legal entities. These variables are used to calculate the recovery rate, which is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganization, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings. To determine the present value of the amount recovered by creditors, Doing Business uses the lending rates from the International Monetary Fund, supplemented with data from central banks and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The most recent round of data collection was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to recover debt (years) To make the data on the time, cost and outcome comparable across economies, several assumptions about the business and the case are used: • Measured in calendar years • Appeals and requests for extension are included - A hotel located in the largest city (or cities) has 201 employees and 50 suppliers. The hotel experiences financial difficulties. Cost required to recover debt (% of debtor’s estate) - The value of the hotel is 100% of the income per capita or the equivalent in local currency of USD 200,000, whichever is greater. • Measured as percentage of estate value - The hotel has a loan from a domestic bank, secured by a mortgage over the hotel’s real estate. • Court fees The hotel cannot pay back the loan, but makes enough money to operate otherwise. • Fees of insolvency administrators In addition, Doing Business evaluates the quality of legal framework applicable to judicial • Lawyers’ fees liquidation and reorganization proceedings and the extent to which best insolvency practices have been implemented in each economy covered. • Assessors’ and auctioneers’ fees • Other related fees Outcome • Whether business continues operating as a going concern or business assets are sold piecemeal Recovery rate for creditors • Measures the cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors • Outcome for the business (survival or not) determines the maximum value that can be recovered • Official costs of the insolvency proceedings are deducted • Depreciation of furniture is taken into account • Present value of debt recovered Strength of insolvency framework index (0- 16) • Sum of the scores of four component indices: • Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) • Management of debtor’s assets index (0-6) • Reorganization proceedings index (0-3) • Creditor participation index (0-4) Page 54 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Resolving Insolvency - Vanuatu Indicator Vanuatu East Asia & OECD high Best Regulatory Pacific income Performance Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) 45.8 35.5 70.2 92.9 (Norway) Time (years) 2.6 2.6 1.7 0.4 (Ireland) Cost (% of estate) 38.0 20.6 9.3 1.0 (Norway) Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as going concern) 1 .. .. .. Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 6.0 7.0 11.9 None in 2018/19 Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu – Score 49.3 37.5 Recovery rate Strength of insolvency framework index Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Ranking and Score DB 2020 Resolving Insolvency Score 0 100 9.2: Marshall Islands (Rank: 167) 43.4: Vanuatu (Rank: 101) 40.9: Regional Average (East Asia & Pacific) 37.8: Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (Rank: 125) 33.4: Samoa (Rank: 140) 0.0: Kiribati (Rank: 168) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of resolving insolvency is determined by sorting their scores for resolving insolvency. These scores are the simple average of the scores for the recovery rate and the strength of insolvency framework index. Page 55 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu – Time and Cost Time (years) Cost (% of estate) 6 38.0 38.0 38.0 38.0 40 5.3 35 Cost (% of estate) 5 30 Time (years) 4 25 20.6 3 2.6 2.6 20 2.0 2.0 15 2 1.7 9.3 10 1 5 0 0 East No Marshall Micronesia, OECD Samoa Vanuatu Asia Practice Islands Fed. high & Kiribati Sts. income Pacific Page 56 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Vanuatu 3 2 1 0 Kiribati 0 2 2 0 Marshall Islands 0 Micronesia, Fed. Sts. 6 2.5 0 3 Samoa 3 2.5 1 1 OECD high income 5.3 2.8 2.1 1.9 East Asia & Pacific 3.7 2.3 1.3 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Sub-Indicator Score Management of debtor's assets index (0-6) Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) Creditor participation index (0-4) Reorganization proceedings index (0-3) Note: Even if the economy’s legal framework includes provisions related to insolvency proceedings (liquidation or reorganization), the economy receives 0 points for the strength of insolvency framework index, if time, cost and outcome indicators are recorded as “no practice.” Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu and comparator economies – Recovery Rate Recovery rate(cents on the dollar) 50 45.8 45 40 35.5 35 30 25 20 17.1 18.5 15 10 5 3.4 0 No Practice Vanuatu Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Samoa East Asia & Pacific Page 57 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu Indicator Answer Score Proceeding receivership BizBank would file an application to appoint a receiver with the Supreme Court of Vanuatu. The court would then appoint an official receiver according to the Part 3 of the Companies Insolvency and Receivership Act. The receiver will assess the position of the hotel and decide whether it should be saved or sold. If the receiver decides to proceed with selling the hotel, it can either sell it as business (run it for a while and sell as a going concern) or realize it as property (close down the hotel and sell the property piecemeal). Outcome going concern The hotel will continue operating as a going concern after the appointed receiver sells Mirage's business to a third party. Time (in years) 2.6 The receivership procedure would approximately take about 31 months until BizBank is repaid some or all of the money owed to it. Cost (% of estate) 38.0 The cost associated with the case would amount approximately to 38% of the value of the debtor's estate. The cost incurred during the entire insolvency process mainly includes attorneys’ fees (13%), receiver’s fees (24%) and court fees (1%). Recovery rate 45.8 (cents on the dollar) Page 58 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Details – Resolving Insolvency in Vanuatu – Measure of Quality Answer Score Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 6.0 Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) 2.0 What procedures are available to a DEBTOR when commencing insolvency proceedings? (b) Debtor may file for 0.5 liquidation only Does the insolvency framework allow a CREDITOR to file for insolvency of the debtor? (b) Yes, but a creditor 0.5 may file for liquidation only What basis for commencement of the insolvency proceedings is allowed under the insolvency framework? (a) (a) Debtor is 1.0 Debtor is generally unable to pay its debts as they mature (b) The value of debtor's liabilities exceeds the value generally unable to of its assets pay its debts as they mature Management of debtor's assets index (0-6) 3.0 Does the insolvency framework allow the continuation of contracts supplying essential goods and services to the No 0.0 debtor? Does the insolvency framework allow the rejection by the debtor of overly burdensome contracts? Yes 1.0 Does the insolvency framework allow avoidance of preferential transactions? Yes 1.0 Does the insolvency framework allow avoidance of undervalued transactions? Yes 1.0 Does the insolvency framework provide for the possibility of the debtor obtaining credit after commencement of No 0.0 insolvency proceedings? Does the insolvency framework assign priority to post-commencement credit? (c) No priority is 0.0 assigned to post- commencement creditors Reorganization proceedings index (0-3) 0.0 Which creditors vote on the proposed reorganization plan? N/A 0.0 Does the insolvency framework require that dissenting creditors in reorganization receive at least as much as No 0.0 what they would obtain in a liquidation? Are the creditors divided into classes for the purposes of voting on the reorganization plan, does each class vote No 0.0 separately and are creditors in the same class treated equally? Creditor participation index (0-4) 1.0 Does the insolvency framework require approval by the creditors for selection or appointment of the insolvency Yes 1.0 representative? Does the insolvency framework require approval by the creditors for sale of substantial assets of the debtor? No 0.0 Does the insolvency framework provide that a creditor has the right to request information from the insolvency No 0.0 representative? Does the insolvency framework provide that a creditor has the right to object to decisions accepting or rejecting No 0.0 creditors' claims? Note: Even if the economy’s legal framework includes provisions related to insolvency proceedings (liquidation or reorganization), the economy receives 0 points for the strength of insolvency framework index, if time, cost and outcome indicators are recorded as “no practice.” Page 59 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Employing Workers Doing Business presents detailed data for the employing workers indicators on the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). The study does not present rankings of economies on these indicators or include the topic in the aggregate ease of doing business score or ranking on the ease of doing business. The most recent round of data collection was completed in May 2019. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Hiring To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the worker and the (i) whether fixed-term contracts are prohibited for permanent business are used. tasks; (ii) maximum cumulative duration of fixed-term contracts; (iii) length of the maximum probationary period; (iv) minimum The worker: wage;(v) ratio of minimum wage to the average value added per - Is a cashier in a supermarket or grocery store, age 19, with one year of work experience. worker. - Is a full-time employee. - Is not a member of the labor union, unless membership is mandatory. Working hours (i) maximum number of working days allowed per week; (ii) The business: premiums for work: at night, on a weekly rest day and overtime; - Is a limited liability company (or the equivalent in the economy). (iii) whether there are restrictions on work at night, work on a - Operates a supermarket or grocery store in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 weekly rest day and for overtime work; (iv) length of paid annual economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. leave. - Has 60 employees. - Is subject to collective bargaining agreements if such agreements cover more than 50% of the Redundancy rules food retail sector and they apply even to firms that are not party to them. (i) whether redundancy can be basis for terminating workers; (ii) - Abides by every law and regulation but does not grant workers more benefits than those whether employer needs to notify and/or get approval from third mandated by law, regulation or (if applicable) collective bargaining agreements. party to terminate 1 redundant worker and a group of 9 redundant workers; (iii) whether the law requires employer to reassign or retrain a worker before making worker redundant; (iv) whether priority rules apply for redundancies and reemployment. Redundancy cost (i) notice period for redundancy dismissal; (ii) severance payments, and (iii) penalties due when terminating a redundant worker. Data on the availability of unemployment protection for a worker with one year of employment is also collected. Page 60 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Employing Workers - Vanuatu Details – Employing Workers in Vanuatu Answer Hiring Fixed-term contracts prohibited for permanent tasks? No Maximum length of a single fixed-term contract (months) 36.0 Maximum length of fixed-term contracts, including renewals (months) No limit Minimum wage applicable to the worker assumed in the case study (US$/month) 316.5 Ratio of minimum wage to value added per worker 0.8 Maximum length of probationary period (months) 6.0 Working hours Standard workday 8.0 Maximum number of working days per week 6.0 Premium for night work (% of hourly pay) 0.0 Premium for work on weekly rest day (% of hourly pay) 50.0 Premium for overtime work (% of hourly pay) 25.0 Restrictions on night work? No Restrictions on weekly holiday? No Restrictions on overtime work? No Paid annual leave for a worker with 1 year of tenure (working days) 15.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 5 years of tenure (working days) 15.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 10 years of tenure (working days) 21.0 Paid annual leave (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in working days) 17.0 Redundancy rules Dismissal due to redundancy allowed by law? Yes Third-party notification if one worker is dismissed? No Third-party approval if one worker is dismissed? No Third-party notification if nine workers are dismissed? No Third-party approval if nine workers are dismissed? No Retraining or reassignment obligation before redundancy? No Priority rules for redundancies? No Priority rules for reemployment? No Redundancy cost Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 1 year of tenure (weeks of salary) 2.0 Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 5 years of tenure (weeks of salary) 13.0 Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 10 years of tenure (weeks of salary) 13.0 Notice period for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in weeks of salary) 9.3 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 1 year of tenure (weeks of salary) 4.3 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 5 years of tenure (weeks of salary) 21.7 Page 61 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 10 years of tenure (weeks of salary) 43.3 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in weeks of salary) 23.1 Unemployment protection after one year of employment? No Page 62 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Business Reforms in Vanuatu From May 2, 2018 to May 1, 2019, 115 economies implemented 294 business regulatory reforms across the 10 areas measured by Doing Business. Reforms inspired by Doing Business have been implemented by economies in all regions. The following are reforms implemented since Doing Business 2008. =Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. = Change making it more difficult to do business. DB2017 Starting a Business: Vanuatu made starting a business easier by removing registration requirements and digitizing the company register. Getting Credit: Vanuatu improved access to credit by passing a new law that allows secured creditors to realize their assets without being subject to priorities of other creditors. Protecting Minority Investors: Vanuatu strengthened minority investor protections by increasing shareholder rights and role in major corporate decisions and clarifying ownership and control structures. Resolving Insolvency: Vanuatu made resolving insolvency easier by strengthening and modernizing its legal framework in relation to liquidation and receivership proceedings. DB2016 Registering Property: Vanuatu improved the quality of land administration by appointing a land ombudsman to deal with complaints relating to the land registry. Trading across Borders: Vanuatu reduced the border compliance time for importing by improving infrastructure at the port of Vila. DB2015 Registering Property: Vanuatu made property transfers faster by digitizing its land registry system and hiring and training new staff. DB2014 Getting Credit: Vanuatu improved access to credit information by establishing a private credit bureau. DB2013 Dealing with Construction Permits: Vanuatu made obtaining a construction permit more cumbersome by making a preliminary environmental assessment mandatory and made it more expensive by increasing the fees. DB2012 Starting a Business: Vanuatu made starting a business easier by reducing the time required for company registration at the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission and issuing provisional licenses at the Department of Customs. Dealing with Construction Permits: Vanuatu made dealing with construction permits more difficult by increasing the number of procedures and the cost to obtain a building permit. Registering Property: Vanuatu made registering property easier by computerizing the land registry. Trading across Borders: Vanuatu made trading across borders faster by upgrading Port-Vila’s wharf infrastructure, which increased the efficiency of port and terminal handling activities. DB2011 Employing Workers: Vanuatu increased mandatory annual leave and severance pay applicable in case of redundancy dismissals. DB2010 Getting Credit: Vanuatu strengthened its secured transactions system by launching a unified and geographically centralized collateral registry. DB2009 Getting Credit: Vanuatu strengthened its secured transactions system by adopting the Personal Property Securities Act and creating an electronic registry for security interests. The new law broadens the range of assets that can be used as collateral, extends a security interest to the proceeds of the original asset, ensures that secured creditors have priority outside bankruptcy procedures and allows out-of-court enforcement of security interests. DB2008 Registering Property: Vanuatu made registering property more expensive by increasing the registration fees for the deed of transfer at the Department of Lands Records. Page 63 Doing Business 2020 Vanuatu Page 64