INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS
What is needed for effective SEZ development?
Africa has been a relative latecomer to the use of SEZs, and part of the reason for the failure of African SEZs may simply be poor timing. The rapid growth and contribution of economic zones to export-led growth in East Asia was in part driven by an unprecedented era of globalization (Farole and Moburg 2014). Because most African countries launched their programmes later, they faced a more competitive environment, especially after the expiration of the MFA. But bad timing alone does not tell the whole story. Many African zones have failed to take off due to a lack of basic infrastructure and institutions.
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One virtue of having a high-level champion is that it identifies a person who has the job of explaining why the policy agenda looks as it does and who can be held politically responsible for things going right or wrong. When the responsible party is the head of state or government it also raises both the visibility of the industrial policy process and the level of accountability for its implementation. In Africa, all too frequently top political leadership has chosen to delegate the industrial development agenda to lower levels of government, and, while political leaders have periodically promoted SEZs, they have failed to maintain consistent links between the SEZ programmes and wider strategies for industrialization.