Explore Economies in Colombia

This page shows summary Doing Business data for the selected city in Colombia. The first table shows its rank among thirteen departments/cities. The other tables summarize the key indicators for starting a business, registering property, paying taxes, trading accross borders, enforcing contracts, benchmarked against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Note: Doing Business uses data from Bogota to calculate Colombia's country rankings.

Data snapshots



Colombia - Santa Marta

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Ease of... Rank among 13 cities in Colombia Top city in Colombia
Doing Business5 Pereira
Starting a Business 5 Pereira
Registering Property 7 Manizales
Paying Taxes 12 Popayán
Trading Across Borders 1 Santa Marta
Enforcing Contracts 3 Villavicencio
Note: Click on topic name to view detailed information.

Starting a Business

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.
Indicator Santa Marta Latin America & Caribbean OECD Average
Procedures (number) 16 9.5 5.7
Time (days) 40 61.7 13.0
Cost (% of income per capita) 13.2 36.6 4.7
Min. capital (% of income per capita) 0.0 2.9 15.5

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Registering Property

The ease with which businesses can secure rights to property is shown below. Included are the number of steps, time, and cost involved in registering property.
Indicator Santa Marta Latin America & Caribbean OECD Average
Procedures (number) 11 6.8 4.7
Time (days) 24 70.4 25.0
Cost (% of property value) 2.6 5.9 4.6

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Paying Taxes

The data below shows the tax that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures of the administrative burden in paying taxes. These measures include the number of payments an entrepreneur must make; the number of hours spent preparing, filing, and paying; and the percentage of their profits they must pay in taxes.
Indicator Santa Marta Latin America & Caribbean OECD Average
Payments (number per year) 69 33.2 12.8
Time (hours per year) 445 385.2 194.1
Profit tax (%) 22.5 20.4 16.8
Labor tax and contributions (%) 32.7 14.7 24.4
Other taxes (%) 26.8 13.2 3.3
Total tax rate (% profit) 81.9 48.3 44.5

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Trading Across Borders

The costs and procedures involved in importing and exporting a standardized shipment of goods are detailed under this topic. Every official procedure involved is recorded - starting from the final contractual agreement between the two parties, and ending with the delivery of the goods.
Indicator Santa Marta Latin America & Caribbean OECD Average
Documents to export (number) 6 6.8 4.3
Time to export (days) 19 18.6 10.5
Cost to export (US$ per container) 698 1,243.6 1,089.7
Documents to import (number) 8 7.3 4.9
Time to import (days) 16 20.9 11.0
Cost to import (US$ per container) 677 1,481.0 1,145.9

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Enforcing Contracts

The ease or difficulty of enforcing commercial contracts is measured below. This is determined by following the evolution of a payment dispute and tracking the time, cost, and number of procedures involved from the moment a plaintiff files the lawsuit until actual payment.
Indicator Santa Marta Latin America & Caribbean OECD Average
Procedures (number) 34 39.7 30.6
Time (days) 470 707.0 462.4
Cost (% of claim) 26.1 31.3 19.2

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