“The bureaucracy “When she becomes an expensive, slow and intrusive maze,” ceases to be an institutional mechanism to become A trap that suffocates private initiative,
limits formalization and drives the investment”, Synthesizes the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, from the International University of Floridain its latest report of bureaucracy index 2025.
This report measures the administrative burden in 21 countries (16 Latin Americans, 2 Caribbean and 3 Europeans) to open and operate a company. This year’s approach is medium enterprises, keys for their generation of formal employment, innovation and contributions to GDP.
The index highlights that Chile is the country where companies need more hours to manage their procedures and start working, 5,227 hours in total. It is followed by Argentina, with 4,496 hours; Panama, 3,392 hours, Peru, 3,332; Colombia, 2,475; Guatemala, 2,283 and Bolivia, in the seventh place, with 2,060 hours.
Below are, in that order, Ecuador, Honduras, Uruguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Paraguay, Mexico, Dominican Republic and the country where companies need less time for their procedures, is Brazil, with 284 hours.
On average, in the 21 countries, 1,850 hours are required to open a company, that is, 8 jobs, While for the annual operation, 1,577 hours are needed, 76 % of the employee time of an employee per year.
The most affected sectors are the industry, where the greater bureaucratic load, followed by the tertiary (services) and the primary (agricultural). The opportunity cost is $ 110.5 billion annually in the countries studied, equivalent to 13 % of the joint GDP.
According to the investigation, This excess of regulations not only increase operating costs, but also discourages formalization and feeds informalitywhich in Bolivia exceeds 70 % of total employment.
The 2025 bureaucracy index concludes that simplifying administrative procedures is key to stimulating competitiveness and business confidence.
There is no will
The economist and researcher, Fernando Romero, said that this corroborates that Bolivia is one of the most informal economies in the world, it is also in the “Top 10” of countries that present greater difficulties in doing business or companies.
“That discourages, demotivates and makes several entrepreneurs, small and microenterprises mainly, prefer to be in informality rather than perform expensive and late procedures, and then enter a system where there is a lot The private sector, ”he said.
Romero highlighted That the average of 2,060 hours for Bolivia is equivalent to allocating 77 consecutive days or 231 working days of 8 hours. Meanwhile, the operating bureaucracy index (1,796 a year), equivalent to 74 days or 224 working days.
“National or subnational entities do not do much to improve this, because it is part of a model that is still from the twentieth century, because there is no modernization or digitalization of public systems to eliminate bureaucracy and be all more practical and economical in time and resources, ”he added.
For its part, Javier Román-Roig, president of Youth Company, raised the need to digitize and simplify the procedureseliminate regulatory redundances and guarantee clear and agile rules.
International experience shows that Reducing bureaucracy drives GDP growth, encourages investment and generates quality employment (…). Bureaucracy not only slows productivity, it also feeds informality and corruption. Reforming this system is key for young entrepreneurs to compete on equal terms and project Bolivia as an attractive country to undertake and invest, ”he said.
He also considered that the business closure process should also be facilitated, which will boost the same business creation, Román-Roig added.
