Open SEZ: Special Economic Zones & Cities - 新乡市城

By George ELIOT PluSEZ & MinuSEZ is a series of analyses of existing or proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Britain's new Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF) is expected to grow on the back of the offshore wind industry in the North Sea (off Scotland's northeast coast). We give it a 50-50 chance of success.  PluSEZ (Advantages): 1) The growth in offshore wind is indeed phenomenal and the cost of generated electricity is commercially competitive, which may make the zone big enough to make the project self-sufficient 2) The government is offering tax and social security concessions. 3) Proximity to Inverness Airport and the inclusion of Inverness Harbour in the freeport area. MinuSEZ (Disadvantages): 1) The land is scattered across 520 hectares in three areas: The Cromarty Firth (including Nigg, Port of Cromarty Firth and Deephaven); Inverness (including Inverness Harbour and Inverness Campus); and Ardersier. The scattered locations may be driven by genuine...

By George ELIOT The ongoing or planned cuts in US (USAID), UK, French and German foreign aid spending create opportunities for the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to fill at least part of the void that has opened up. In a world desperate for economic dynamism, SEZ can activate capital spending and mop up surplus labour. This is what The Economist wrote in January 2024 in an article titled " Can satellite cities help solve Africa’s urbanisation challenges ? " “the point of charter cities is not to help the poorest directly, but indirectly. Strong governance, coupled with fiscal incentives, are intended to attract investment, the benefits of which will ripple through the economy.” The biggest development aid donor countries in the world and their development aid spending (in USD) for 2022 were: USA: $55.3 billion Germany: $35 billion France: $19.6 billion Japan: $17.5 billion UK: $15.7 billion However, in terms of development aid spending as a percentage of GDP per...

By George ELIOT Special Economic Zones (SEZ) have something in common with all living things: they represent a temporary reduction in entropy, against an environment with higher entropy. Entropy as a scientific concept is typically associated with disorder and uncertainty. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase over time, meaning that systems naturally move towards greater disorder and less usable energy. However, living things exists as pockets of lower entropy, which indicates greater order and less randomness. Therefore the corresponding higher available energy within living organisms allows this energy to be used for work (e.g. for motion and for biological processes). Whereas the rest of the environment (e.g. the surface of the Earth or open space) tends to converge towards higher entropy, i.e. more disorder and less usable energy.  In a similar way, a successful SEZ has lower entropy, which means it is more orderly t...