Entrepreneurs: Latin America’s Best & Worst

The best and worst countries for entrepreneurs in Latin America.

BY JOACHIM BAMRUD

Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America and sixth-largest in the world,  may have a lot of good things going for it, including the 2014 World Cup in soccer and 2016 Olympics.

But President Dilma Rousseff may want to take a closer look at the environment for entrepreneurs in the South American country.

Brazil ranks as the fourth-worst country in Latin America for entrepreneurs, according to the Latin Entrepreneur Index from Latin Business Chronicle. The index looks at five key factors that impact entrepreneurs:  

• Number of procedures for starting a business,
• Time to start a business (number of days),
• Cost to start a business as a percent of income per capita (including all official and legal fees),
• Access to loans (ease of access to obtain a bank loan with only a good business plan and no collateral).
• Venture capital availability (venture capital availability for entrepreneurs with innovative but risky projects).

The index uses data from The World Bank’s Doing Business report for 2012 and the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12 from the World Economic Forum.

BRAZIL

It takes a whopping 119 days to start a business in Brazil, more than three times ...

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Keywords: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela