Business Law Reform

We work with Pacific countries to create simplified, modern, and locally tailored business laws.

A dynamic private sector leads to higher employment and incomes, reduced poverty and increased prosperity. But in many Pacific Island countries, confusing and outdated laws make it difficult for businesses to start, trade and grow. 

Business laws underpin the way in which economic activity is organized. They determine how businesses are formed, how contracts are structured, and how enterprises expand or are closed down. The ease of business formation and costs of complying with laws and regulations have a major bearing on the degree of informal economic activity in a country. Low-cost, inclusive business laws provide strong incentives for business formalization. Formal businesses, in turn, have greater access to finance, contracts, international trade, and prospects or growth. 

Through its business law reform focus area, PSDI aims to modernize the foundational business law frameworks of the 14 Pacific island DMCs, and make the legal system accessible to everyone, by: 

  • streamlining business registration processes by establishing low cost, predictable, and streamlined steps to incorporate and register business entities using business registry technology such as online business registries;
  • establishing better business laws through an extensive variety of projects that aim to improve business environments by responding to each countries’ individual needs;
  • enabling movable assets financing by establishing the legal frameworks and accompanying online systems that make it easy for lenders to accept movable property as collateral;
  • introducing simple business structures such as single shareholder/single director companies, which make formality far simpler for small businesses;
  • supporting compliance with international anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism requirements;
  • promoting entrepreneurship and foreign direct investment, particularly in Papua New Guinea through an extensive program of support to the PNG Investment Promotion Authority; and
  • allowing for community companies, an easy-to-establish corporate form for village and community businesses that provides a superior way to receive profits or revenues from royalties or communal economic activities.

Changes to laws and regulations form an integral part of virtually all reform, as they enshrine change in an accountable, enforceable manner. The business law reform team also provides critical technical advice to other PSDI focus areas on policy design, regulatory change, and legal drafting in order to assist those areas to achieve the desired outcomes.

Business Law Reform and COVID-19

For more information on PSDI's Business Law Reform focus area and COVID-19, click here. 

Business Law Reform at a glance

Six online business registries

PSDI has supported the establishment of online business registries in 6 Pacific island countries, reducing the time, cost, and effort required to register a formal business.

Business registrations 90% faster

Following the implementation of PSDI-supported reforms and registries, the time taken to register a business in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu has fallen on average from 22 days to 1.5 days.

91% increase in company registrations

The number of new companies registered post-reform increased by an average of 91% in Samoa Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Simplified business structures

created, such as single shareholder companies, that make it easier for individuals, especially women, to establish formal businesses.

Community companies structures

enabling communities to harness their shared resources and capacity to build collective wealth.

Transparent foreign investment

Strengthened in 3 countries, enabling access to overseas know-how, labor, and capital.
Latest News
8 April 2025
Delivering a suite of reforms to foster a stronger, fairer private sector in Tonga

PSDI is supporting Tonga to improve competition and consumer protection, facilitate foreign investment, and simplify business registration processes.

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21 February 2025
Upgraded Registry Makes Doing Business Simpler, Faster, and Less Expensive in Tonga—ADB

Tonga now has an upgraded online business, foreign investment, and personal property securities registry, developed by the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, with the support of the Asian Development Bank's Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative.

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3 December 2024
PSDI attends strategic implementation workshop for AML/CFT in Papua New Guinea

PSDI attended the strategic implementation plan workshop and national coordinating committee meeting (NCC) on anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in Papua New Guinea.

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11 October 2024
Cook Islands Launches New International Business Registry to Strengthen AML/CFT Compliance—PSDI

The Cook Islands Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has launched a secure and state-of-the-art registry for international entities, developed by the Asian Development Bank’s Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI), with support from the Government of Australia.

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Key Publications
PSDI Annual Report FY2024
PSDI Annual Report FY2024
This annual report outlines how the Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative supported the enabling environment for business and helped foster inclusive private sector-led economic growth in the Pacific during FY2024 (1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024).
PSDI Country Overviews 2024-2025
PSDI Country Overviews 2024-2025
These fact sheets provide an overview of PSDI activities in each country to 2025.

Investment For Growth: A review of foreign direct investment frameworks in the Pacific
Investment For Growth: A review of foreign direct investment...
This study reviews the FDI frameworks in Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu, to support countries to attract, retain, and assess FDI efficiently and effectively.
PSDI Annual Report FY2022
PSDI Annual Report FY2022
This report gives an overview of PSDI activities from July 2021 to June 2022.
PSDI Annual Report FY2020
PSDI Annual Report FY2020
This report gives an overview of PSDI activities from July 2019 to June 2020.
PSDI 2007-2019 Activities and Results Overview
PSDI 2007-2019 Activities and Results Overview
PSDI ended its third funding phase on 31 December 2019. This brochure, designed to mark the end of that phase, highlights key activities and results during PSDI's first three phases (2007-2019).