Labour and Special Economic Zones

Although the concept of setting aside specific pieces of land to be administered under different forms of low has been pursued for various reasons throughout history, the popularity of the special economic zone (SEZ) really took off when the Chinese government demonstrated that it was possible to use them as a means of raising hundreds of millions of people out of poverty without making any concessions to political plurality. This chapter explores the ways in which Vietnam has sought to follow a similar path and the difficulties that have been encountered in trying to do so.