The island of Grenada is the only Caribbean country listed among the top 10 most-improved countries to do business.

According to Doing Business 2011:Making a Difference for Entrepreneurreport produced by the World Bank,the spice isle, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004,has very good prospects for starting a business, registering property and trading across borders.

The appointment of a registrar focusing only on property cut the time needed to transfer property inGrenada by almost half, the report stated. The country’s customs administration made trading faster by simplifying procedures, reducinginspections, improving staff training and enhancing communication with users.

The report added thatGuyanaeased business start-up by digitizing company records, which speeded up the process of company namesearch and reservation. Guyana enhanced access to credit by establishing a regulatory framework that allows thelicensing of private credit bureaus and gives borrowers the right to inspect their data. Guyana improved its riskprofiling system for customs inspection, reducing physical inspections of shipments and the time to trade.

And the earthquake ravaged island of Haitieased business start-up by eliminating the review by the president’s or the prime minister’s office of theincorporation act submitted for publication.

Meanwhile, when it comes to doing business in Jamaica, the report stated that the country eased the transfer of property by lowering transfer taxes and fees, offering expedited registration proceduresand making information from the company registrar available online.

Puerto Ricomade paying taxes more costly for business by introducing a special surtax of 5% on the tax liability inaddition to the normal corporate income tax.

In Antigua and Barbuda, to transfer property now requires clearance by the chief surveyor to avoid mischievousdeclarations.

The Dominican Republicmade it more difficult to start a business by setting a minimum capital requirement of100,000 Dominican pesos ($2,855) for its new type of company, sociedad de responsabilidadlimitada (limitedliability company).

Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying business regulations, strengtheningproperty rights, opening access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets.

Nearly 1,000 reforms have had an impact on these indicators. Doing Business 2011, covering June 2009 to June 2010reports that 117 economies implemented 216 reforms to make it easier to start a business. 64% of economies measuredby Doing Business have reformed this year, focusing on easing business start-up, lightening the tax burden,simplifying import and export regulations and improving credit information systems.