Lessons from East Asia: Comparing Ethiopia and Vietnam's Early-Stage Special Economic Zone Development

Tang, Keyi

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3710984

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Together they introduce a lot of noise in communication, limiting the scope and depth of the knowledge that can be effectively transferred. In addition, the high labour turnover in Ethiopia discourages companies from further investments in KT activities and especially regarding the training of local management cadres (Tang, 2019a) because this requires larger investments owing to longer training and mobility that is required. Second, there is a significant gap in the absorptive capacity of local labour in both countries vis‐à‐vis Chinese companies, particularly at managerial levels.…”

Section: Discussion: Knowledge Reuse or Knowledge Creation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the rapid expansion of China‐inspired/China‐supported SEZs in Africa and Southeast Asia, and a nascent stream of literature on the topic (Ding and Liao, 2020; Tang, 2019; Tang, 2015; 2019; 2019b, & 2020; Zhang et al, 2018), little is understood about the transfer process of the skills, knowledge, and technology from China to the host countries as well as the extent to which effective and sustainable outcomes ensue from such transfer (Knoerich et al, 2021). Although some studies discuss the merits of transnational knowledge and skill spillovers for FDIs and host nations, there is a paucity in the literature that comprehensively reviews this fluid dynamic within the context of specific nations.…”

Section: Introduction: Special Economic Zones and Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge Transfer in the Global South: Reusing or Creating Knowledge in China’s Special Economic Zones in Ethiopia and Cambodia?

Alves

Lee

2022

Global Policy

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Chinese special economic zones (SEZs) have played a key role in attracting massive foreign investment and in facilitating knowledge and technology transfer to local companies. This explains the mushrooming of Chinese‐led SEZs and industrial parks in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa since the early 2000s, and more recently its prominence in the planning of the economic corridors along the Belt and Road Initiative. Our interest in SEZs derives from the fact that they provide novel grounds to investigate the dynamics of knowledge transfer (KT) in South–South exchanges and the extent to which it diverges from more traditional exchanges. This study undertakes a comparative analysis of KT in the Eastern Industrial Zone (EIZ) in Ethiopia, and the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) in Cambodia. The case studies suggest that, although the provision of training by Chinese investors has added value to the labour force, its transformative impact is limited owing to the concentration on explicit KT modalities at lower skills levels and the top–down approach to KT by Chinese companies. These limitations are largely a function of the wide absorptive capacity gap between China and the host countries studied and the absence of more conducive industrial policies.

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Section: Discussion: Knowledge Reuse or Knowledge Creation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: Special Economic Zones and Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Transfer in the Global South: Reusing or Creating Knowledge in China’s Special Economic Zones in Ethiopia and Cambodia?

Alves

Lee

2022

Global Policy

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“…In addition to the common for the Asia‐Pacific countries' task to accelerate transition to an industrial economy, the Chinese and Vietnamese governments intended to use DIs to solve such ambitious tasks as advancing market reforms and overcoming regional inequality (X. Chen, 1995, pp. 596, 603–604; Tang, 2019). Under such conditions, the Japanese model of the “developmental state” had to undergo further transformation, which, on the one hand, manifested itself in wider state intervention in the economy, and, on the other, in decentralization and selective de‐bureaucratization 4…”

Section: The Development Policies Of the Asia‐pacific Countries And The Russian Far Eastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development institutions of the Russian Far East and Asia‐Pacific countries: Goals, instruments, and results in comparative perspective

Kireev

Севастьянов

2021

Asian Politics and Policy

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The major innovation of the Far Eastern policy of Russia in the 2010s—the introduction of the macroregional system of development institutions—is studied today mainly as an intra‐Russian and economic phenomenon. In this article, we place studied development institutions in a wider social and international context. Identifying the origin, strategic goals, preferential instruments, and the results of functioning of the development institutions system of the Russian Far East, we compare it with analogous systems in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, and India. The article concludes that there is an objectively conditioned typological proximity of the development institutions system of the Russian Far East with similar systems in China and Vietnam. We emphasize that this proximity is based on the similarity of the problems of the macroregion and the named countries, and, consequently, the goals of their development policies. On this basis, we recommend to increase the number of territorial development institutions in this macroregion of Russia, decentralize the regulation of Advanced Development Territories and Vladivostok Free Port, and involve private developers in the management of these institutuions.

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“…The Chinese Ministry of Commerce routinely organizes training trips for Ethiopian Industrial Park managers. In 2017, for example, one was organized from April to May and this “trip consisted of 23 officials, many of which mentioned that they learned a lot from China's Industrial Parks (IP) design, especially how China integrated its SEZs with urban areas, which facilitated urbanization, consumption, and market growth in the process of industrialization” (Tang 2019). Ethiopia thus envisions its industrialization mirroring China's path.…”

Section: The Internationalization Of Chinese Characteristics In Ethiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of the Chinese Model in Ethiopia

Ziso

2020

Politics & Policy

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Ethiopia's economic relationship with China continues to scale new heights with both state and private Chinese capital penetrating various sectors of the East African country's economy. Besides the economic benefits that Chinese capital brings, successive Ethiopian leaders since Meles Zenawi often express awe and admiration of the "China Model." Because China represents a living example of economic transformation from a developing to a strong global economic power, Third World countries vaguely refer to some political and economic modeling of their countries with the hope of imitating the Chinese miracle in their own backyards. I characterize this as "Chinesefication" and discuss what this move toward a "China Model" looks like in the Ethiopian context. It is imperative to understand whether a Chinese model is actually being localized in Ethiopia outside the rhetoric. Ethiopia, I argue, has adopted a variety of neoliberalism linked to the political preservation of the ruling class. I identify the specific interests inside Ethiopia that shape the country's approach to China, how this space is negotiated, and why, despite the ambiguity of the "China model," including the skepticism surrounding fears of China's involvement in Africa, relations with Ethiopia continue to grow.

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Lessons from East Asia: Comparing Ethiopia and Vietnam's Early-Stage Special Economic Zone Development

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Knowledge Transfer in the Global South: Reusing or Creating Knowledge in China’s Special Economic Zones in Ethiopia and Cambodia?

Knowledge Transfer in the Global South: Reusing or Creating Knowledge in China’s Special Economic Zones in Ethiopia and Cambodia?

Development institutions of the Russian Far East and Asia‐Pacific countries: Goals, instruments, and results in comparative perspective

The Political Economy of the Chinese Model in Ethiopia

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