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The business environment for entrepreneurs in the five countries of the East African Community (EAC) improved in 2010-2011, as the countries implemented critical regulatory reforms, a joint report issued this month by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank indicates.

Emmanuel ole Naiko, executive director of the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), said the report reflects the hard work done to build institutions by East African Community member states -- Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

"In Tanzania and our [EAC] counterparts, we have done a lot in the last five years. For example, here in Tanzania, we have established a one-stop centre system. An investor can walk into our office and clear all registration processes at just one window," Ole Naiko told Sabahi.

Ole Naiko said TIC's main focus has been to cut bureaucracy by establishing automated systems and changing laws that constrained business in the country. He said after achieving this target, the remaining challenge is to sustain the current standard. "Obviously we have to work hard to live up to our customers' expectations," he told Sabahi.

Before TIC established the one-stop centre system, local and foreign investors had to go to more than five government departments to register a business -- the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade and Industries, a city or district council, the Tanzania Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The report compares business regulations and identifies good practices across the EAC in the 10 areas covered by the World Bank Group's annual Doing Business in the East African Community report. According to the 2012 report, the five EAC countries implemented a total of 10 regulatory reforms across nine of the measured areas.

The measured areas include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, obtaining electricity service, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

"Over the past year, all five economies making up the EAC instituted regulatory reforms … That means 100% of the region's economies implemented reforms last year, compared with an average of 80% of the region's economies implementing reforms over each of the previous six years," the report said.

It commended investments in infrastructure, such as ports, roads and telecommunications, as vital for private-sector development.

"The Northern Corridor and Central Corridor rehabilitation projects, both multi-modal infrastructure investments connecting the five East African economies' transport systems, are examples of vital undertakings by the region for the development of its private sector," the report said.

Adopting the region's best practices for each indicator can reap many benefits, such as improving scores for ease of doing business, the report said.

Over the past seven years, regulatory reforms in the EAC have focused on simplifying regulatory processes, the report said. Trade-facilitation reform has implemented electronic systems for customs declaration among the EAC economies, reducing export time from an average of 40 days in 2006 to 29 days in 2011. Import time was cut nearly in half -- from 60 days in 2006 to 33 days in 2011, the report said.

Tanzania Revenue Authority Commissioner General Harry Kitilya commended the infrastructure development over the past year, saying that importing goods in Tanzania has become easier after the laws were changed to allow electronic submission of tax-assessment documents.

"The obvious advantage is that taxpayers are freed from queuing, creating convenience in paying taxes and saving taxpayers' time," he told Sabahi.

Honest Ngowi, an economics professor at Mzumbe University, told Sabahi that doing business has become easier, but Tanzanians are less skilled than foreigners in business.

"Foreigners are taking advantage of the good laws, as they were reviewed, but Tanzanians are not going out for business," Ngowi said. "I keep telling my students that the future belongs to those who are job creators and not job seekers, but very few seem to understand me."

Denis Vedasto, an entrepreneur who registered the company Devi General Supplies last year, said the process of registering a business is no longer bureaucratic.

"My friends who registered their businesses about five years ago told me it would take a year to register a company, but to be honest, it took me just seven days, and everything was for free except the mandatory 6,000 Tanzanian shillings ($3.83) I paid to register the business name," he told Sabahi. "Things have really changed from before. At least, we should thank the government for this."