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Special Economic Zones in Africa
Box 2.3
Mauritius Export Processing Zone The Mauritius Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) is one of Africa’s most famous and successful examples of the free enterprise type of EPZ, in which companies are granted status on an individual basis and are free to locate anywhere on the island, including in industrial parks that are not restricted to MEPZ enterprises. MEPZ enterprises dot the national territory; historically, they have located near labor force pools. Mauritius is only 1,800 km2. The small size greatly simplifies access to key infrastructure, as no enterprise is more than 60 km from the international airport and the port. This EPZ strategy allowed the country to avoid having to set up industrial parks to host MEPZs when their numbers reached 600 firms in the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Mauritius also operates the Mauritius Freeport, which is a small commercial free zone within the island’s commercial port in the capital city of Port Louis. Companies must operate within the designated perimeter. Source: Baissac, C. 2010.
One approach that may be useful in clarifying the definition overlap noted above may be the categorization used by the World Economic Processing Zones Association (WEPZA): • Wide-area zones: These are zones that occupy a surface area greater than 1,000 hectares (100 km2) and with a resident population. Chinese SEZs fall into this category, as does the Aqaba Special Economic Zone. • Small-area zones: These are generally smaller than 1,000 hectares and typically surrounded by a fence. Investors must locate within the zone to receive benefits. They have no resident population, although they may contain worker dormitories. Most EPZs and FTZs are of this type. In our report, we use the FIAS terminology but replace the term freeport with wide-area SEZ to describe the Chinese zones.2 Throughout the report, we use the terms special economic zone and economic zone in a generic way to refer to all the zones discussed above. When we are making a distinction about a distinct type of economic zone (for example, EPZs) we use the specific term.