Shifting South: Regional value chains in New Special Economic Zones in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the Global South traditionally aim at attracting investments from Western lead firms. However, financing of and investments in some Sub-Saharan SEZs are following new dynamics which increasingly involve more Southern actors, e.g. Chinese financing of SEZ infrastructure projects and investments by local firms. These developments disrupt the traditional South-North value chains. New emerging value chains are South-South centered, including Regional Value Chains (RVC), that is, value chains between neighbouring countries. Our case study, a SEZ in Zambia, shows that some new SEZs in the Global South serve as territorial intermediaries for strategic coupling between investors and regional value chains because of two reasons: shifting end markets to the Global South and firm strategies to deal with geopolitical insecurities.