Above: Cape Town, South Africa (read more)
Analyzing Business Operating and Regulatory Environments
Special economic zone (SEZ) programs must be built around a thorough understanding of the factors affecting business growth. As experts in business regulation, we help countries become more competitive by assessing the primary constraints to business growth and identifying opportunities for improvement. From there, we help position a nation's SEZs to capitalize on those opportunities through targeted reforms, including cutting red-tape, streamlining government procedures, easing labor market rigidities, lowering trade barriers, and removing distorting tax policies.
Zones that improve the business environment not only attract investment, but can become catalysts for nationwide progress. China first introduced free market reforms through its SEZs in the 1980s. Malaysia and Mauritius first introduced pro-industrialization policies through their zones. These and other examples show that when ideas are first tested in zones, they can spread more easily across the entire nation.
With Locus Economica, you can structure your zones to pioneer innovative reforms that shape the economy of tomorrow.
REPRESENTATIVE PROJECT Experience
Chile's far northern and southern regions - the "zonas extremas" - host two strategically important free zones. From October 2016 to March 2017, the World Bank retained Locus Economica to assist the Chilean Ministry of Finance, as well as several regional and local entities, with efforts to improve the free zones programs. ...