A review of China’s overseas economic and trade cooperation zones along the Belt and Road:Progress and prospects

As a new mode for Chinese overseas investment and a growth pole for industrialization and urbanization of the host countries,the overseas economic and trade cooperation zone(OETCZ) or overseas free economic zone(OFEZ) of China plays an important role under the Belt and Road Initiative.With the rising attention on OETCZ,studies regarding OETCZ have also increased.However,there is a lack of studies reviewing this topic’s progress,challenges and future directions.This paper employs a systematic review to examine the literature on the OETCZ along the Belt and Road,based on domestic and overseas studies.The results show that domestic studies account for a large proportion of the collected literature,compared to overseas studies.Interdisciplinary research focus includes inductive case studies from a classification perspective,deductive studies based on cultural and institutional perspectives,trade network and bilateral trade relations based on the perspectives of international trade and regional economy,spatial planning studies from urban planning perspective,and overseas comments and earlier studies on Japan’s and Singapore’s overseas parks from the geopolitical and international political perspectives.Despite diverse research contents and dramatic progress,limitations exist in current OETCZ-related studies,including a lack of exploration of the mechanism,questions and concerns from overseas scholars,sustainable development and other problems.Future studies should broaden and deepen research insights,including the “overseas free economic zones(OFEZ)” as a general designation to cover all other types of OETCZs,studies on the primary conditions of host countries,exploration of the theoretical issues behind China’s OETCZ,comparative study of OETCZs such as management structures,profit models,environmental standards and legal systems as well as popular issues questioned internationally.

“一带一路”倡议提出以来中国国内外产业园区的比较与案例分析

With rapid globalization,industrial parks are playing an increasingly important role in the national and regional development.Since the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)was put forward,national-level overseas industrial parks of China have emerged with new development features and trends.It is of great importance to carry out a comparative study on domestic and overseas industrial parks of China.Based on the perspective of spatiotemporal evolution,this paper compares and analyzes national-level overseas industrial parks along the Belt and Road(B&R)and domestic industrial parks of China.In time,China’s industrial parks have experienced four stages with distinctive state-led characteristic.There are different development paths and modes for overseas industrial parks along the B&R and domestic industrial parks.In space,the national-level overseas industrial parks are invested and constructed by Chinese enterprises(mostly from the coastal developed cities),and mainly distributed in the countries along the B&R.Through typical cases comparison of Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone and Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area,the paper finds that national-level overseas industrial parks are basically market-driven and concentrated in traditional advantageous industries,while domestic industrial parks are mainly government-led high-tech industries.Localization of overseas industrial parks and remote coupling with domestic industrial parks become very important.

中国海外园区建设的地缘效应解析——以柬埔寨西哈努克港经济特区为例

China's overseas industrial parks contribute to political and economic cooperation, cultural exchange between home and host countries. Current studies mainly discuss the effect of overseas industrial parks from the perspective of institutional and cultural difference, multi-scale coupling, as well as key partnerships, while little attention has been paid to the comprehensive analysis of overseas industrial parks. Based on a theoretical framework, this paper explores the overall effect of China's overseas industrial parks from the geo-effects perspective by using field interviews and a case study approach. The research shows that:(1) the geo-effects reveal the over effect of overseas industrial parks from the multiple and complementary dimensions of geopolitics, geo-economics, geo-society and geo-culture;(2) the Cambodia Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, as a flagship BRI project, has produced the prominent and positive geo-effects;(3) the institutional-economic-cultural-environmental adaptability of overseas industrial parks is becoming important. Overseas industrial parks must be rooted in the politics, economy, society, and culture of host country;embedded in local social networks;balance the rights and interests of all stakeholders;and form the community of interests, community of destiny, and community of responsibility with political mutual trust, economic integration, cultural inclusiveness, and social harmony. The paper not only deepens the understanding about the overall effect of overseas industrial parks, but also provides decision support and theoretical reference for government policy makers and the overseas investment of enterprises.

多样的跨国合作——中国海外园区的多尺度主角网络

The development of overseas industrial parks is a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative and a practical way of promoting inclusive globalization by introducing new forms of cooperation between China and the host countries. In this paper, the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone(TCRIZ), and the China-Indonesia Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone(KITIC) are discussed in the context of the evolving development strategies and trajectories through three interrelated conceptual lenses – policy mobility, actor networks, and partnerships. The actor-network theory provides a lens to analyze how policy mobility and partnerships develop for two industrial zone case studies. The development, which involves a multi-scalar process, is shaped by the interactions among the national states, the regional governments and corporations against a background of globalization. Three types of transnational actor partnership networks have been identified, namely, hierarchical partnership, spontaneous partnership, and hybrid partnership. A highlight of the study is the role that the partnerships play in the process of policy mobility when it comes to the overseas industrial zones. It is argued that the partnerships are the key to achieving technology transfer on a cross-national basis, and the effectiveness of the technology transfer is dependent on partner selection and the roles of the actors in policy mobility.