Second Best? Investment Climate and Performance in Africa’s Special Economic Zones
As an instrument of trade and investment policy, special economic zones have played a catalytic role in processes of industrialization, diversification, and trade integration in many countries, particularly in East Asia. However, in the African con...
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| Language: | English |
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2012
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| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20101018102611 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3930 |
| Summary: | As an instrument of trade and investment
policy, special economic zones have played a catalytic role
in processes of industrialization, diversification, and
trade integration in many countries, particularly in East
Asia. However, in the African context, anecdotal evidence
suggests the experience has been disappointing on the whole.
Among the reasons why many zones underperform may be that
they fail to establish a high quality investment environment
-- this is, after all, one of the main promises that
economic zones hold for investors. Drawing on original
survey research, this paper presents a systematic analysis
of the outcomes and the investment climate of economic zones
programs in six African countries and four developing
countries outside the region. The analysis finds that
although performance across zones is mixed -- with Ghana and
Lesotho in particular performing well on some measures --
African zones programs on the whole are underperforming in
terms of attracting investment, facilitating exports, and
creating jobs. Economic zones in Africa offer an improved
business environment relative to what is available to firms
based outside the zones; however, in comparison with the
non-African countries in the survey, both absolute
investment climate performance and relative improvements
fall well short. |
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