From 2009-2010, Locus founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier served as Regulatory Reform Sub-Component Lead and senior legal advisor helping Egypt's local governments improve the quality of their regulations. The project was funded by USAID and titled "TAPR-II Egypt Subnational Regulatory Reform." It served as USAID's overall flagship private-sector development project in Egypt.

Jean-Paul helped design enhancements to "smart centers" in Cairo and Alexandria and a "second wave" of activities for the national Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and Reform Program launched under the project.

Locus Economica CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier also helped review the legal framework and service offerings of the Alexandria Smart City.

Finally, this work involved assistance with a concession framework for the Suez Canal SEZ initiative. Following Mr. Gauthier’s work in the context of the USAID TAPR-2 Program, including around the Ain Sokhna SEZ initiative, Egypt launched 2 SEZs. Formally launched in 2015, Egypt’s Suez Canal Zone (SCZone) now includes 4 ports, 2 industrial areas and 2 integrated industrial/port areas. 33 Chinese companies had started operating in SCZone, with a total investment of $1 billion. It has been announced that Chinese companies would be investing up to $1.5 billion more, through 70 further companies’ investments in the zone 398 Russian companies have also started developing $107.8 million worth of investment projects.