Danja Isah Ibrahim, Wang Xingping
School of Architecture, Southeast University Nanjing, China.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 9;10(14):e34411. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34411. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.
African countries are consistently trying to leverage industrialization to advance their economic development. Despite possessing favorable factors such as abundant natural resources, a surplus of low-cost labor, and an increasing number of established Special Economic Zones (SEZs), African countries are yet to fully maximize their potential and achieve sustainable and inclusive industrialization. This study explores the comparative advantages of African countries to determine the types of SEZs that can effectively accelerate industrialization. By leveraging the unique strengths and resources of each country, customized strategies for SEZs can be developed to attract investments, promote technological advancements, and foster sustainable economic growth. The research utilizes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) matrix, which is grounded in Ricardian trade theory, examining trade data spanning from 2011 to 2021 to evaluate the competitive export capabilities of various countries. The findings consistently reveal that the selected countries (Ghana, Ethiopia, and South Africa) possess a significant and consistent comparative advantage in natural and agricultural resources compared to other sectors. Establishing SEZs that focus on these sectors can generate substantial socio-economic impacts, including attracting investments, creating employment opportunities, enhancing export capacities, stimulating economic growth, fostering linkages, facilitating skills and technology transfer, promoting spillover effects, encouraging specialization, developing infrastructure, and supporting value addition in agribusinesses. The result of this study will contribute to policy discussions and aid decision-making processes for policymakers, investors, and development practitioners in their efforts to advance industrial development across Africa.
非洲国家一直在努力利用工业化来推动其经济发展。尽管拥有丰富自然资源、大量低成本劳动力以及越来越多已设立的经济特区等有利因素，但非洲国家尚未充分发挥其潜力，实现可持续和包容性的工业化。本研究探讨非洲国家的比较优势，以确定能够有效加速工业化的经济特区类型。通过利用每个国家的独特优势和资源，可以制定针对经济特区的定制战略，以吸引投资、促进技术进步并推动可持续经济增长。该研究采用基于李嘉图贸易理论的显性比较优势（RCA）矩阵，审查2011年至2021年的贸易数据，以评估各国的竞争性出口能力。研究结果始终表明，所选国家（加纳、埃塞俄比亚和南非）在自然资源和农业资源方面相对于其他部门具有显著且持续的比较优势。建立专注于这些部门的经济特区可产生重大的社会经济影响，包括吸引投资、创造就业机会、增强出口能力、刺激经济增长、促进联系、便利技能和技术转让、促进溢出效应、鼓励专业化、发展基础设施以及支持农业综合企业的增值。本研究结果将有助于政策讨论，并为政策制定者、投资者和发展从业者在推进非洲工业发展的努力中的决策过程提供帮助。
