This research report brings forth facts about the importance of Economic Zones (EZs) and discusses the factors that led to their success. EZs have seen a tremendous growth in numbers since 1970’s, and they are now the preferred mode of industrial clustering, especially in the form of Special Economic Zones (SEZ). This has come about due to various advantages that they tend to confer in terms of industrial development. For example, they offer economies of scale in production and costs, act as incubators for new technological developments, spur new research and tend to have positive spillover effects. In the long term, factors like continued coordination and links with research organizations and academia help sustain and improve the performance of EZs.
The success of EZs around the globe presents a good opportunity for Pakistan too, where industrial development has lagged owing to certain factors like poor infrastructure, lack of private sector led initiatives and the poor design and implementation framework whereby costs of establishing and running an EZ tends to be greater than its advantages. The situation in Pakistan remains less than satisfactory.
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