Dawei SEZ: The Emerging Economic Landscapes of Myanmar

Abstract

The proliferation of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) around the world since the 1950s has created a global logistical network for manufacturing and industrial output at an unprecedented scale. The legal exceptions and tax incentives of SEZs attract foreign investors and are an effective political tool for economic growth. Shenzhen, established in 1980, is considered as the most successful model, having catalysed manufacturing, industry and development not only within the SEZ but also throughout the surrounding region, spurring rapid and large-scale urban transformations. While less successful than Shenzhen, Thailand’s “Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand” established in the 1970s aims to capitalize on foreign investment and industrial production through dispersed networks of industrial clusters populating its agrarian landscape. Both industrialization processes are models for Dawei SEZ. In 2008, the Myanmar and Thai governments signed an MOU to jointly develop Dawei SEZ. Subsequently, Myanmar enacted the Dawei SEZ Law in 2011 to demonstrate its commitment to the project. While not the first SEZ proposed in Myanmar—Thiwala near Yangon since the 1990s, and Kyaupyu SEZ since 2008—Dawei SEZ is the largest in scale and scope of planned infrastructure investments. At full build-out, approximately 250-square-kilometers, the SEZ will house a range of industries, petroleum processing zones, and a deep seaport—all supported by remote freshwater reservoirs, a road link through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and large electric power plants throughout Tanintharyi Region. This paper uses case studies of the planning and design of large-scale state-lead industrial development projects of Shenzhen and Thailand to explore the issues and consequences, including geo-political networks, resource infrastructure, and citizenship, of the proposed Dawei SEZ. Through mapping and analysis of its evolving master plans and regional development impacts, we seek to understand: 1) the spatial implications of political exceptions and regional restructuring; 2) the physical impact and reach of infrastructure on the landscape and its environmental consequences; and 3) the role of existing communities, imported labor, and land-use planning within these industrial clusters. While financial, regulatory, and political forces play crucial roles in the success and failures of SEZs, the physical landscape context, the planned land-use mixes, and environmental impacts have equal consequence in shaping investor confidence, community involvement, and future economic growth. We conclude the paper through landscape architectural scenarios for Dawei SEZ as a means to test lessons learned from other SEZs and propose alternatives for more sustainable development.