Enhancing the Global Competitiveness of East and Central Africa

Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier served as Project Manager and Team Lead for the establishment of the USAID East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Hub (ECA Hub).  The ECA Hub is an online platform known as "Compete Africa" that supports businesses in East and Central Africa...

Attracting Creatives to the Dubai Media City

The Dubai Media City was launched in 2001 to attract advertising, communication, marketing, and media companies to Dubai, thereby establishing it as regional creative hub. Today, the city has 20,000 people working in 2,000 international and regional media companies.

Locus Economic Director Santosh Hejmadi served as Director of Marketing for the Dubai Media City ...

Uncovering the Barriers to Investment in Pakistan

The major problems with an economy aren't always what they seem. A common belief in Pakistan was once that the country's written statutes and regulations weren't the problem, but the government agencies implementing those laws. However, when Locus CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier led the World Bank's "Pakistan Administrative Barriers to Investment Study" from 2003-2007, he demonstrated that this wasn't the complete story. ....

Helping Make East and West Africa More Competitive

From 2007-2008, Locus Founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier led the technical work for trade and investment competitiveness assessments for both East and West Africa while working with Deloitte Consulting.

Helping Diversify Nigeria's Economy through State-Level Diagnostics

Nigeria's non-oil industries face serious administrative barriers imposed by sub-national (state) governments.... Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier helped address this problem in 2007 when he served as a senior advisor on the World Bank's Nigeria Sub-national Investment Climate Program. ...

Breaking Down Barriers to Investment in Nepal

In 2006-2007, Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier served as a senior advisor on the World Bank / Foreign Investment Advisory Service's (FIAS) Diagnostic of Nepal's Investment Climate. Nepal's Ministry of Industries, Commerce, and Supplies invited the World Bank team to evaluate barriers to investment....

Stimulating Shared Prosperity in Senegal through Private Investment Promotion

By the mid 2000s, Senegal had achieved steady economic growth, but that growth was only benefiting a small portion of the population.... Central to Jean-Paul's efforts was establishing a one-stop shop for business registration and licensing inside the country's investment promotion agency, APIX....

Clearing Administrative Barriers to Investment in Niger

From 2006-2007, Jean-Paul Gauthier served as TTL and Team Lead for the World Bank's Niger Administrative Barriers to Investment Study. The project was conducted through the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), for which Jean-Paul served as the designated SEZ law point person on 38 total projects....

Making Burkina Faso's Investment Climate Leap

Locus is committed to making it easier to do business in our client's countries. ... From 2005 to 2007, Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier led the World Bank / International Finance Corporation's (IFC) "Doing Business Better" Project for Burkina Faso....

Evaluating the Performance of Yemen's Free Zones and Industrial Estates

Port of Aden

In 2006, Locus Founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier served as Senior Technical Advisor for the World Bank on Yemen's free zones and Industrial Estates programs. Jean-Paul provided a critical and in-depth review of the performance of the the zones.

Yemen introduced a free zones program in 1993 with the passage of the free zones bill. It designated a free zone in Aden and YemInvest was contracted to develop and operate both the Aden Port and free zone. The free zone aims to be a manufacturing and logistics hub.

Yemen is also currently developing a new special economic zones (SEZ) bill, alongside several measures to reform the regulatory environment.

Charting a Future for South Sudan through Special Economic Zones

Jean-Paul Gauthier helped evaluate a special economic zones (SEZ) strategy for South Sudan in 2006 while serving as a Senior Technical Advisor and SEZ point person for the World Bank. South Sudan had recently...

Building Better Business Laws in West and Central Africa

OHADA is an organization of 17 Central and West African countries that seeks to improve the business environment in the region by passing uniform laws applying to all businesses in member state. From 2006-2007, Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier led an ... effort to help reform OHADA laws that were in need of updating. ...

Stimulating Business Growth in Lebanon through Special Economic Zones

Jean-Paul Gauthier was with the World Bank when tasked with helping establish Lebanon's special economic zone (SEZ) program from 2005-2006. Lebanon was concerned with ...