{"id":2052,"date":"2018-07-15T19:47:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T22:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/?p=2052"},"modified":"2018-07-16T08:40:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:40:24","slug":"special-economic-zones-not-an-easy-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/2018\/07\/15\/special-economic-zones-not-an-easy-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Special economic zones not an easy project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"estimated-read-time\">Tempo de leitura:<small> 3 minutos<\/small><\/p> <p><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cIt\u2019s not easy for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to succeed. It\u2019s very difficult. You can establish a SEZ and no company may come.We established one and for 12 years no company came,\u201d warned Japanese economic expert and executive advisor to government in Laos, Motoyoshi Suzuki, in May 2016, on Zimbabwe\u2019s planned SEZs.<\/span><span id=\"more-65431\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Zimbabwe accelerated its drive to establish a number of SEZs with pilot projects in Bulawayo, Sunway City in Harare and the Victoria Falls as well as diamond cutting and polishing in Mutare. Government further gazetted a number of economic zones in various towns and cities. The zones are managed by the Zimbabwe Special Economic Zones Authority (Zimseza), which was established by the government last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cIn addition, as well as to operationalise the SEZs, the board has been constituted, however, on a part-time basis with modest remuneration allowances to avoid becoming an additional burden on the budget,\u201d Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said in the 2018 national budget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Clearly to date, since the SEZ policy was first mooted in 2015, there has been no movement in these zones as investors do not see any real benefits of moving to those designated zones. The words of the Japanese economic advisor Suzuki are coming to life. Zimbabwe for years has had a checkered history when it comes to maintaining policy consistency and predictability. Lack of long term macro-economic planning, that is shared across the political divide, given the upcoming July 30 elections, may prove to be the breaking point in the success of SEZ implementation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">According to the 2018 National Budget, the Zimseza board is on a part-time basis, which raises concerns over government\u2019s political will and commitment to the success of the initiative. In 2016, Suzuki advised that it was important that government enjoyed the confidence of potential investors. \u201cYou must be predictable. No sudden turns. The investors have to trust your government. Sudden change is not good. Keep your promises. Keep your word,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">One of the most critical success factors of SEZs around the globe is that they are hinged on a clear strategy of development which is fully integrated in the national industrial policy and long-term macro-economic plan. This clearly implies that SEZ programmes should be part of the broad national development agenda, centred on the country\u2019s shared national vision. They should be designed to best complement and support comparative advantages, as validated through a detailed strategic planning, feasibility and master-planning process. This is the key to ensure their viability and long-term sustainability based on real market demand not just political rhetoric. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Proper planning is needed and according to Suzuki, mixing small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the same zones as big companies may fail to produce the desirable results. \u201cWe don\u2019t allow big companies to join SMEs in SEZ. SMEs won\u2019t stay because they don\u2019t want to compete with big companies. The big firms intimidate the small ones so they are not welcome,\u201d Suzuki said in May 2016, referring to Laos in Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Government, therefore, needs to institute a sound legal and regulatory framework. A predictable and transparent legal and regulatory framework ensures clarity of roles and responsibilities of various parties and provides protection and certainty to the developers and investors. Such a framework also helps to ensure that the zones attract the right investments and are implemented with high standards. Understandably, government developed the Special Economic Zones Act, which is being continuously polished to avoid unpredictable risks, such as political setbacks or interference and land speculation, among other factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Given the great complexity and potential risks of zone programmes, strong and long-term government commitment is needed to ensure policy continuity and the adequate provision of necessary infrastructure. The zones have to be truly \u201cspecial\u201d and provide services that are not available outside of zones and can be used to pilot policy and regulatory reforms to support economic development. This will help attract the needed investment and broader development envisaged by these zones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zimbabwesituation.com\/news\/special-economic-zones-not-an-easy-project\/\">Leia mais<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><small> 3 minutos<\/small> \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to succeed. It\u2019s very difficult. You can establish a SEZ and no company may come.We established one and for 12 years no company came,\u201d warned Japanese economic expert and executive advisor to government in Laos, Motoyoshi Suzuki, in May 2016, on Zimbabwe\u2019s planned SEZs. Zimbabwe accelerated its drive to establish a number of SEZs with pilot projects in Bulawayo, Sunway City in Harare and the Victoria Falls as well as diamond cutting and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/2018\/07\/15\/special-economic-zones-not-an-easy-project\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span>Continue lendo<\/span>\u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-adm_hb2018","post-2052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2053,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions\/2053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}