Special Economic Zone ("SEZ") is an absolute popular model in the world. Since late 1950s, modern SEZ started to appear in industrial countries, the first was in Shannon Airport in Clare, Ireland. Until now, SEZ is utilized as a breakthrough method for the economic growth in most nations. Therefore, there are thousands of SEZs, industrial parks, export processing zones and other similar areas globally todays. However, some are successful in generating significant economic activities, while many are not. The reason for this phenomenon is that they did not research carefully on the key success factors of SEZ, additionally, the reference from successful SEZs (Shenzhen of China, Incheon Free Economic Zone of Korea, etc) is definitely important so that not everyone can do. Especially Vietnam, a developing country with a great ambition in improving the economy, is looking for launching SEZs to boost growth and to attract foreign direct investments to the country. The three SEZs are slated for development in Van Don, Bac Van Phong and Phu Quoc. Otherwise, the Draft Law for these SEZs are being discussed and are receiving lots of positive and negative opinions at the same time. This thesis clarifies some existing major issues of SEZ in Vietnam, about both legal and policy perspectives. After that, the author gives some recommendations for Vietnamese Government to complete legal framework for the success of SEZs.
Chapter 1 is an introduction, briefly presents the research. It focuses on the purpose, the delimitation of the study, and the methods used in doing the research.
Chapter 2 concentrates on the definition and basic knowledge of SEZ. It also provides some information about current status of SEZs in the world and Vietnam.
Chapter 3 is a case study of the most argued SEZ in Vietnam recently, Van Don EZ. This chapter goes clearly to the natural feature of Van Don District, how Van Don became an EZ in the past and the process for its transferring into a SEZ at present.
Chapter 4 mentions legal issues when establishing SEZs in Vietnam. It highlights the shortcomings in the law-making process, the unreasonable provisions and the wrong format which makes the Draft Law still not come to completion.
Chapter 5 indicates policy issues when establishing SEZs in Vietnam. The main content of this chapter is the consequences that Vietnamese people fear once SEZs officially being operated. Most sensitive issues also are remarked, and they are the main reasons for SEZs being still on process.
The last chapter is the general evaluation of current Vietnamese SEZs. Then, after consulting many successful SEZ models in the world, the author expresses some personal opinion and proposal for the successful establishment of SEZs in Vietnam.