Special Economic Zones in Pakistan: Analysis of Trends from Global Perspective

Abstract

Special economic zones (SEZs) are being used by countries all over the world as an effective economic strategy to promote economic development and industrialization with proper planning by attracting foreign investment with tax rebate and business incentives for investors. There are umpteen successful models of zones being practiced by states across Asia like Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, and China and how these states struggled to achieve envisioned goals needs a thorough study. This paper attempts to examine the phenomenon of SEZ by observing the conditions that tend to contribute to success. The paper also ascertains the importance of SEZ for Pakistan‘s industrial development and provides policy recommendations for the government of Pakistan in the light of lessons learnt from the global context.