In 2004, the Government of Fiji sought the assistance of the World Bank to help improve its program for issuing investment approvals and registering businesses. Locus Founder and CEO Jean-Paul Gauthier served as a senior advisor on the project, providing hands-on, practical assistance to several government agencies involved in these functions.
The effort led to an impressive level of simplification and streamlining of approval processes and greater inter-agency coordination. The following results were achieved:
- Reduction in the number of days required to start a business from 64 (2004) to 46 (2005)
- Reduction in the processing time of foreshore leases from 11 months to 5 months
- Reduction in the processing time of work permits from an average of 40-60 days for new foreign investors to 14 working days
- Reduction in average processing time of foreign investment registrations from 3 weeks to 3.8 working days