Establishment of Bukit Kayu Hitam as a Special Border Economic Zone (SBEZ): Global lessons

Abstract

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is one of the known mechanisms to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Nevertheless, there was a global mix reaction towards its successful implementation with a few operational failures, especially in the area of its legal framework. Therefore, this paper aim is to explore the success and failure experience to be a reference for the development of Special Border Economic Zone at Bukit Kayu Hitam using qualitative textual analysis. It finds that two significant issues in SEZs; regulatory/ legal framework, and development spill-over. Keywords: Special Economic Zones; Land Use Planning Law; Policy Implementation; Bukit Kayu Hitam. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.2270