Review of Costa Rica's One-Stop Shop for Investment

Governments around the world are making significant efforts to deliver more effective public services reduce administrative burdens improve communication and enhance citizens' experiences with government formalities. In these efforts regulatory improvement tools such as administrative simplification digital licensing and one-stop shops play a central role. In recent years Costa Rica has introduced the digital one-stop shop Single Investment Window (Ventanilla Unica de Inversiones VUI) which brings together all the formalities necessary for investing in the country. The VUI reduces burdens for entrepreneurs and businesspersons by providing a single digital point of contact for various licenses and permits issued by different government agencies. In this way it helps boost Costa Rica's competitiveness and attract more investment. This report provides an overview of the VUI as well as a comparative analysis of its design and operation using OECD best practice principles in one-stop shops as a benchmark. The report also provides recommendations to improve the performance of the VUI.