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.