Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones

Peter Warr and Jayant Menon ()

No 459, ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: This study examines the role of special economic zones (SEZs) within the trade policy of Cambodia. It asks whether Cambodia’s establishment of SEZs since late 2005 has been successful, based on the evidence to date, and analyzes the appropriate role and management of SEZs over the next decade or more. The study finds that the SEZs have attracted significant levels of foreign investment into Cambodia that would not have been present otherwise. These investments have created around 68,000 jobs, with equal or better pay and better prospects than the alternatives that would otherwise have existed, raising the economic welfare of the workers concerned. A feature of the Cambodian experience is that the government has left the establishment and management of the zones to private sector developers, avoiding the large and sometimes wasteful public sector set up costs associated with SEZ establishment in many other countries.

Keywords: Cambodia; foreign investment; production networks; special economic zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F21 F23 F63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2015-10-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea
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Related works:
Working Paper: Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:adbewp:0459

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