IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v63y2014icp78-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Going Global in Groups”: Structural Transformation and China’s Special Economic Zones Overseas

Author

Listed:
  • Bräutigam, Deborah
  • Tang, Xiaoyang

Abstract

China’s special economic zones helped the country industrialize by attracting foreign investment. In 2006, Beijing initiated an overseas trade and cooperation zone program, assisting Chinese companies to invest abroad while also building China’s soft power through the transfer of a key component of China’s development success. Little is known about the 19 zones approved so far under this program, or the impact they are likely to have on structural transformation and industrial development in their host countries. This paper identifies the 19 zones and their proposed locations, the process of selection, developers, implementation, and the Chinese incentive regime. It then focuses on the African zones. Using a typology of factors that have proven critical for zone development in the past, the paper evaluates the potential of these zones for fostering structural transformation in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Bräutigam, Deborah & Tang, Xiaoyang, 2014. "“Going Global in Groups”: Structural Transformation and China’s Special Economic Zones Overseas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 78-91.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:63:y:2014:i:c:p:78-91
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.10.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X13002222
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.10.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rotunno, Lorenzo & Vézina, Pierre-Louis & Wang, Zheng, 2013. "The rise and fall of (Chinese) African apparel exports," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 152-163.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vandana Chandra & Justin Yifu Lin & Yan Wang, 2013. "Leading Dragon Phenomenon: New Opportunities for Catch-up in Low-Income Countries," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 30(1), pages 52-84, March.
    2. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Ping Hua, 2020. "When and how African real exchange rates relative to China affect its manufacturing?," Post-Print hal-03060589, HAL.
    3. Asongu, Simplice A, 2014. "A Development Consensus reconciling the Beijing Model and Washington Consensus: Views and Agenda," MPRA Paper 58757, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Justin Yifu Lin, 2013. "From Flying Geese to Leading Dragons: New Opportunities and Strategies for Structural Transformation in Developing Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Joseph E. Stiglitz & Justin Lin Yifu & Ebrahim Patel (ed.), The Industrial Policy Revolution II, chapter 1, pages 50-70, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Paul N. Acha-Anyi, 2020. "A survey on the Washington Consensus and the Beijing Model: reconciling development perspectives," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 67(2), pages 111-129, June.
    6. Lin, Justin Yifu, 2016. "Will China continue to be the engine of growth in the world," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 683-692.
    7. Reeg, Caroline, 2017. "Spatial development initiatives – potentials, challenges and policy lessons: with a specific outlook for inclusive agrocorridors in Sub-Sahara Africa," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 97, number 97, December.
    8. Mirjalili, Seyed hossein & Dehghan Khavari, Saeed & Momeni, Farshad, 2017. "کاربرد نظریه اقتصاد ساختاری جدید در توسعه اقتصادی ایران در قالب چارچوب Gif جهت تعیین بخش های پیشران [Application of the New Structural Economics to Iranian Eoconmic Development within the Framework," MPRA Paper 125602, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jul 2017.
    9. Silva Neira, Ignacio & Rodríguez González, Carlos & Pédussel Wu, Jennifer, 2025. "Microeconomic dynamics of FDI and local innovation: A firm level estimation of Chilean firms," IPE Working Papers 252/2025, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    10. Pineli, Andre & Narula, Rajneesh & Belderbos, Rene, 2019. "FDI, multinationals and structural change in developing countries," MERIT Working Papers 2019-004, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta, 2016. "Reconciliation of the Washington Consensus with the Beijing Model in Africa," MPRA Paper 73685, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Asongu, Simplice & Tchamyou, Vanessa & Asongu, Ndemaze & Tchamyou, Nina, 2018. "The Comparative African Economics of Governance in Fighting Terrorism," MPRA Paper 92346, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Broich, T. & Szirmai, A., 2014. "China's economic embrace of Africa: An international comparative perspective," MERIT Working Papers 2014-049, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    14. Simplice Asongu, 2016. "Reinventing Foreign Aid For Inclusive And Sustainable Development: Kuznets, Piketty And The Great Policy Reversal," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 736-755, September.
    15. Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2013. "Report to the Government of Kazakhstan: Policies for Industrial and Service Diversification in Asia in the 21st Century," ADB Reports RPT136049-3, Asian Development Bank (ADB), revised 16 Oct 2013.
    16. Valeriy V. Mironov & Liudmila D. Konovalova, 2019. "Structural changes and economic growth in the world economy and Russia," Russian Journal of Economics, ARPHA Platform, vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, April.
    17. Francesco Macheda, 2025. "China’s Road towards Decarbonization: Unrealistic Promise or a Credible Commitment?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 354-382, July.
    18. Justin Yifu Lin, 2013. "Demystifying the Chinese Economy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 46(3), pages 259-268, September.
    19. Minghui Zhang & Weiqi Xia, 2022. "Research on the Law of China’s Rural Land Institutional Changes: An Analytical Framework of Economic Efficiency and Distributive Equity," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Simplice Asongu & Vanessa Tchamyou & Ndemaze Asongu & Nina Tchamyou, 2019. "Fighting terrorism in Africa: evidence from bundling and unbundling institutions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 883-933, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:63:y:2014:i:c:p:78-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.