Comparisons Between Countries
In a humorously-titled seminal (highly influential in a very original way) book on special economic zones, author Dr. Sam Vaknin called his landmark study on SEZ in the central and eastern European countries (mostly former Soviet Union member states) as “Processing the Export Zones”. His research is backed by reliable and voluminous data collected over a period of years and shows that these SEZ attracted the “unwelcome and criminal” intentions of the Russian “mafia” and other international crime syndicates. In the case of Ukraine (a former Soviet state), its president ordered the immediate closure of the 11 free economic zones and also the 9 priority zones for becoming “semi-criminal zones” that smuggled “hot meat” (meat deemed unfit for human consumption).
Various countries experienced varying degrees of success in their experiment with special economic zones. At one extreme is the debacle of Ukraine as mentioned in the preceding paragraph and the other is the “success” of SEZ in fueling China’s economic growth in a very short span of time. Some experts now questioned the “apparent success” of China since these came at a very high cost in terms of environmental pollution and social displacement unprecedented in the country’s history. The succeeding discussions will try to illuminate the various experiences of these countries to give an idea on the benefits and applicability of special economic zones in different locations.