Abstract

HERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, Clemente. The Chinese experience with the Special Economic Zones and its teachings for the regional development of Southeastern Mexico. Méx.cuenca pac [online]. 2019, vol.8, n.24, pp.19-56. ISSN 2007-5308.  https://doi.org/10.32870/mycp.v8i24.613.

This paper seeks to analyze the key teachings to be learned from the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China and its success factors useful for other developing countries, particularly the implications for the SEZ Project in South-Southeast Mexico. This research first conceptualizes the SEZ and presents their history. Next, it summarizes the experiences of development and lessons from the SEZ in China. Then, it characterizes the Mexican SEZ Project. The analysis section identifies the lessons that planners can learn from the Chinese SEZ. Although it may seem that economic policies, through enabling legislation to facilitate the foreign direct investment (FDI), will result in an improvement in the quality of life and in a reduction of poverty, such a phenomenon does not work automatically and its impacts are not always clear and evident. The main challenges of the SEZ include a weak regulatory and institutional framework, the lack of effective strategic planning, weak governance and poor implementation capacity and inadequate infrastructure.

Keywords : Special Economic Zone (SEZ); industrial development; regional development strategy; China; Southeast Mexico.