U.S. lawmakers rediscovering industrial policy have increasingly turned their sights eastward. Why is it far cheaper to commission a nuclear power plant in South Korea? Why is it faster to stand up a semiconductor fab in Taiwan than in the United States? One answer can be found in a widely-used export-oriented development tool across East Asia: Dedicated industrial zones. These zones are imbued with a set of differentiated physical, infrastructural, governance, and/or land use features designed to promote industrial development and agglomeration – with, recently, a clear focus on high-tech and clean-tech sectors.
This report, coauthored by Jake Higdon (Advanced Industrial Zones), Joel Dodge (Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator), and Chirag Lala (CPE), profiles three notable East Asian examples, each of which offers a different flavor of zone-based development based on different underlying assets, industries, and policy tools. We pull out common themes and offer recommendations for American policymakers interested in tailoring those models to help the U.S. reindustrialize and decarbonize.
