Topic: Analysis of a SEZ establishment in Bhutan as a potential solution for the promotion/growth of MSMEs and role of Micro Finance in making it effective. Authors: Shad Ahmad Khan1, Kavita Sharma2, Aditya Banerjee3, Wahengbam Jotin Singh 4 Designation 1, 2,3 &4: Lecturers, Gaeddu College of Business Studies, Royal University of Bhutan Contact No.: 173737431, 173737022,174676773,175028684 Email:
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Abstract It is always a challenge for a newly constituted liberalized nation like Bhutan to promote the entrepreneurial activity in the territorial boundary of a country where it has been reported that the Youth have a penchant for Government services, so the major challenge is to propel them towards entrepreneurial activities. The dissuading factors apart from a youth’s outlook are the problems faced in starting business a unit, including problems related to Land Allocation, infrastructure, time consumption in registration procedures, Taxes etc. This study is aimed to identify how, SEZs can be a potential solution for facilitating MSMEs in particular, and the overall economic growth of the Country in general, by eradicating the problems faced by the young and potential Entrepreneurs while also considering the preservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Country. A SEZ offers better and organized infrastructure, along with the discounts in terms of Taxes, policies, procedures, ease of Business functioning and licenses. The question is that, how far can SEZ be an encouraging factor for the new enterprise to get established and contribute to Socio-Economic health of the country and make it more efficacious. The need of this study is also relevant as a SEZ is proposed at Jigmeling in Gelephu with 1,185 acre of land with the main target of providing opportunities to small and cottage industries. Further the study also identifies the role, Micro Finance institutions have to play in Special Economic Zone in order to promote small and cottage industries.
Key Words: SEZ, MSMEs, Micro Finance, Enterprise, Entrepreneurial activity, Small and Cottage Industries, Business, Industries.
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Background of the Study: The world first known instance of SEZ have been found in an industrial park set up in Puerto Rico in 1947. In the 1960s, Ireland and Taiwan followed suit, but in the 1980s China made the SEZs gain global currency with its largest SEZ being the metropolis of Shenzhen. After this many countries are following SEZ concept to increase the economic activities in few part of a country which in turn will lead overall development of country. In 2008, there were approximately 3000 Special Economic Zones in 135 countries, accounting for over 68 million direct jobs and over $500 billion of direct trade-related value added within the zones (World Bank, 2008). Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a generic term that covers recent variants of the traditional commercial zones. The basic concept of a special economic zone includes several specific characteristics: (a) it is a geographically delimited area, usually physically secured; (b) it has a single management or administration; (c) it offers benefits based on physical location within the zone; and (d) it has a separate customs area (duty-free benefits) and streamlined procedures (World Bank 2009). A 1992 World Bank study cautioned against the possibility that SEZs could be used by developing countries to “muddle along without reforms,” and stressed the need to use zones as a supplement to countrywide reform, as opposed to creating isolated free market enclaves. Two integration methods that have met with success have been “equal footing” policies for domestic suppliers of capital and intermediate goods and the extensive use of sub-contracting by zone based firms to local producers. SEZ has been showing its majorly positive impacts on developing countries to increase more direct and indirect employment opportunities .Apart from that there are many other positive outcomes of SEZ for human development in all respect. More recently, China followed by Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka emerged as successful demonstrations of SEZ effects on employment. Athukorala (1997) cites a study, which suggests that SEZ firms contributed significantly to a rise in the labour participation rates, notably the entry of young women into the labour force. SEZs can thus offer unique scope for learning, improvement and transformation15 through the flow of technology, knowledge and skills (Milberg 2007 for survey of literature). But many scholars argued against SEZ like Litwack and Qian (1998) develop a theory for a transition 2
economy (China) under which an unbalanced development strategy favors special economic zones.
Research Methodology: i. Scope of study: To Test SEZ as a potential solution in promoting Entrepreneurship in the country and to explore the role of micro finance in it. ii. Objectives of Study: a) To analyze the reasons for Entrepreneurship development in the country. b) To analyse SEZ as a potential Solution for the Entrepreneurial development. c) To analyse the problems Enterprises are facing at inception and functioning stage. d) To explore the problems and challenges SEZ may face in the course of action. e) To provide potential solution to each problem. iii. Research Design: Type of research design: Exploratory a. Type of Data used: Secondary Data b. Sources of Data used: Electronic Sources like e-books, e-journals, and websites; books, articles and government publications. c. Geographical Extend of the Study: Territorial boundary of Bhutan. d. Limitations: i. SEZ as a concept for Bhutan lacks practical example and hence study stands suggestive only. ii. The study is more conceptual and hence lacks the practical implications. iii. There are very few information available on Bhutan in context with Industries and Corporate world. iv. The concept of Micro-Finance for Bhutan is new and no relevant information is available.
Introduction: Bhutan being a land locked country has a dependency on the neighboring nations with regards to Export and Import. This country is governed by constitutional monarchy through parliamentary
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democracy. Since this transition has only taken place four years back therefore this country is still a new born baby in terms of constitutional structures and governance. And hence, the citizens’ dependency on the government is high with regards to the employment opportunities. Thus, the burden on the government is high in terms of creating the employment opportunities in the country. One cannot ignore the fact that, when somebody is employed he is a contributor to the government but when somebody is unemployed he becomes a burden on the government. According to Labour Force Survey the youth unemployment has increased to 13% from 9% in two years; however the overall unemployment level of the country is at 4% which the government has promised to bring down to 2.5% by 2013 as published in September,2012 edition of Drukpa Magazine under Q&A with Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi, Minister of Labour and Human Resources. This statement comes with large amount of opportunities as well as challenges. Though Bhutanese Economy is termed as mixed economy but still most of the industries are owned or controlled by the Government. The need is to decentralize the dependency of the Employment from government to the citizens of the country. The irony in case of Bhutan is that, this decentralization has already been done from the part of the government, by asking people to open up their own ventures or in other words, their own enterprise; but this decentralization in practice is only confined to papers only as most of the people are not volunteering for such steps and to ease down the work of the government. With the recent commitment of Ministry of Economic Affairs in order to open up a SEZ at Jigmeling and Motanga in Samdrup Jongkhar by next year, and proposing one at Dham Dhum industrial estate in Samtse has created a new hope for the economic environment of the country to reach a new height in terms of growth and prosperity. More importantly the remarks made by the Honourable economic affairs secretary, Dasho Sonam Tshering has created, by considering, this step as a landmark in the development of the Small and Cottage based Industries in one of the SEZ’s as published in www.businessbhutan.bt/ on 22nd January,2011;which clearly triggers the opportunities for the new entrepreneurs of the country. Usually, the goal of a SEZ is to increase foreign direct investment by foreign investors, typically an international business or a Multinational Corporation (MNC), development of infrastructure and to increase the employment. The question is that how far this model is going to cater to the requirements of the entrepreneurs in the country enabling their growth and effective functioning. 4
Secondly, the most important aspect one needs to cover is the role of finance in the promotion of such entrepreneurial businesses. As the special need is to be addressed in this case, the study tries to identify the need of micro-finance into it. In total this study tries to work on the question that; what will happen if the legal regulations and financing becomes easy for the business to survive and grow? Will it lead to the development of enterprises in the country? And to address all these issues the following pages identify the needs for Entrepreneurs as contributors for the nation and the role of SEZ in promoting Entrepreneurial Culture in Bhutan along with the role of microfinance in making it effective.
The need for Entrepreneurs: In addition to need addressed in the introduction part related to creating employment opportunities in the country the need for entrepreneurs also becomes very important because of following reasons: 1. Making Country Self Reliant: As of now major amount of the Bhutanese consumption depends on the imports from other nations majorly from India, Bangladesh and Thailand leading to the problem of Balance of Payment as the Exports are less as compared to Imports leading to the problem of Currency crunch, which is very much evident in the country these days. One should appreciate the fact that being a land locked country and adverse geographical conditions there are large amount of problems this nation faces, in terms of production of the commodities (For Example, Bhutan cannot produce sea salt) but at the same time there are comparatively larger picture of the opportunity this country can explore which will not only make this country to grow but also to become self reliant. But becoming self reliant requires large amount contribution from the people but the government dependency acts to be a major hurdle as it creates a psychology block in the mind of the people and hampers their willingness to contribute. 2. Economy- Dependent Economy: According to 2005 stats, the 2/5 of the total government expenses is to be borne by the Aids from India. The public debt on the government is 70.9 % of GDP. This means that the private people should come forward to help government in order to deal with such problems through establishing firms and enterprises. 3. Country’s Image: Bhutan’s Economy is considered to be a very backward nation economically and it falls under the category of Under-developing nation/Least Developed 5
Countries (LDCs). This requires country to become healthy in terms of Employment, Economy and Standard of living. This way will become easier with public-government joint contribution to the Economy. 4. Localisation rather Internationalisation and Globalisation: Bhutan as a country has always strived for the preservation of their culture and traditions. The nation has always considered Globalisation as a question mark in maintaining the legacy. The preservation of culture requires restriction in the flow of resources from outside world; we may call this aspect as “localization” as the focus is more on local culture, tradition and goods. For an effective localization, Bhutan requires young people to come forward and contribute to the cause. One of the way of contribution could be Entrepreneurship. 5. Converting people from Non-productive to productive: Very important task for the government is to convert people from non-productive to productive so that they can lead to economic as well as social prosperity; which can be ensured mostly through entrepreneurship culture developed in the country.
Factors Affecting the growth of MSMEs Licensing policies: According the World Bank report under the head Doing business in South Asia published in 2007 Bhutan’s system was termed as very time consuming as the report says,” Licensing is time-consuming and bureaucratic, placing Bhutan at 145th position worldwide, ahead of only India in the South Asia region. Fulfilling the licensing and permit requirements to build a warehouse takes 26 procedures and 204 days. Bhutan fares poorly when compared with other South Asian countries”. Starting a Business: The same report ranks Bhutan at 79th position in terms of ease of starting a business. But it becomes tiring for the entrepreneurs as report says “entrepreneurs have to complete 10 separate procedures taking 62 days, well above the regional average of 8 procedures and 33 days, and the OECD average of 6 procedures and 17 days”.
Ease of Doing a Business: According to “2012 Index of Economic growth” Bhutan has secured 56.6 points out of 100 in terms of Economic freedom with a position of 111th in the World’s
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Economy which is low when compared to Worlds Average (59.5) and regional Average (57.5) as shown in the following graph:
This clearly shows that the economy is not enjoying enough liberty in the operation of the businesses at large. This means that the government will have to take some measures in order to curb this problem and to promote the entrepreneurial activities by easing down the regulations and policies for the betterment of the economy. However this model cannot be applied in the economy as a whole but certain geographical area can be chosen and hence SEZ stands out to be a great option.
Financial Support and Getting Credit: The report also states that the financial sector of the country is stable but it lack depth. According to this report, Bhutan ranks 159th out of 175 under the category - ease of getting credit. This means that the financial market is to be developed at a priority level. The growth is there, when this report was published (2007) the no. of banks in Bhutan were 2 which has increased to 4 by 2011, but still there is no specialized financial institutes which can cater to the requirements under various categories. Paying Taxes: Bhutan ranks at 68th position in terms of ease of paying taxes, the statement under this head is very de-motivating for the young entrepreneurs to come up with new ventures as it says, “Every year entrepreneurs must make 19 tax payments and spend 274 hours complying 7
with tax rules. They pay 43% of profits in taxes. Tax revenue accounts for only around 50% of total revenue, with the majority of non-tax revenue stemming from power exports to India”.
Other Hurdles on the way of Entrepreneurship: 1. Peoples’ Inclination towards Government Job: It is a general perception that youth are not motivated towards private sector employment, they lack the zeal, commitment and tend to view private sector employment as less prestigious than public sector employment, which in turn, lead to less interest of the young people for jobs in private sector. Particularly in the private sector, jobs are insecure, low wages; in short they are at the whims and fancies of the employer. The working conditions are better in government and working hours are less as compared to private sector. All these conditions generally are not acceptable by youth. Most of the government jobs pay without performance, jobs are secured, salary hike is assured, and in Bhutanese’s context with greater social prestige and power. Work started being taken for granted, work ethics evaporated and productivity took the final blow. As per one article which published in (http://www.kuenselonline.com/2011/?p=35718)the perception of a government job and self-employment has not changed among the youth, both in and out of school, the study states, with over 87 percent of them preferring government employment. In a nutshell, easy life style in government jobs is a lucrative thing to divert youth toward government jobs in comparison to private sector. Besides the above fact, educational background also plays an important role to create entrepreneurs. Normally, many factors are involved to motivate entrepreneurial activities like good education system with creative strategic thinking which give chance students to think out of box, perceptions and attitudes, and to face many challenges and hardship to start a business. Since Bhutan is a developing country, there is a great reliance on external grants and loans to meet domestic needs, however, the most urgent education reforms can at least be initiated without large financial outlays. “The preference for government employment is more pronounced among rural youth, as well as youth in the East and Central Bhutan,” the study stated. All these are factors which create diversion of Bhutanese towards government jobs, which are leading less interest in entrepreneurship activities. 8
2. Lack of Skilled People: Entrepreneurship is not common in Bhutan, and youth do not have the business skills to run a company, or are unwilling to accept the risk of self-employment. One of the major obstacles for entrepreneurship in Bhutan is lack of skilled people who can run business successfully with their knowledge, skills and abilities. The private sector is still in its formative years and may not be able to absorb all these job seekers. According to a report which generated in 2001, a survey done by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in collaboration with Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UNDP and World Bank showed shortage of skilled field workers as well as managers in the country. The survey covered 100 organisations in the private sector. The survey pointed out that the main reasons for poor human resource development effort in those companies were lack of incentives from the government, foreign workers being recruited on contract, and availability of trained workers from neighbouring countries. According to Royal Education Council (REC) study the shortage of skilled workers in Bhutan could intensify by 2020, if the current mismatch between skills and employment opportunities continue. The Tenth Plan lays strong thrust on the development of IT, telecom, and hydropower and tourism industries for economic growth. But the Bhutan’s labour market and economy would face a dual challenge of providing employment to its educated population and ensuring that the industries did not face a shortage of skilled manpower, says the study. The study forecast that there will be a skilled workforce shortage by 40%,70%,& 15% in the IT, hotels and the Construction and power industries respectively. The study pointed out that the gap between the Bhutanese education system and industry requirements must be tightened. The education system produces graduates with general skills rather than those with specialized skills and this may limit the development of some industries, it said.
3. Infrastructure: It is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise or the services and facilities necessary for the economy to function. It can also be defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions."
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Viewed functionally, infrastructure facilitates the production of goods and services, and also the distribution of finished products to markets, as well as basic social services such as schools and hospitals; for example, roads enable the transport of raw materials to a factory. The development of infrastructure is being accorded priority to create productive capacity both in the economy and the people. Emphasis is laid on the improvement and expansion of the national road network, feeder roads, farm roads, telecommunication network, construction of irrigation channels and bridges, urban development and housing, expansion of power transmission lines and grid, and increasing rural electricity coverage. In the social sector, focus will be on consolidation and improvement of the quality of services. While the creation and maintenance of physical infrastructure is critical in pursuing the Gross National Happiness (GNH), the country’s small and dispersed population, rough topography and formidable climate make it difficult to achieve the economy of scale in service delivery, and costly to build and maintain vital infrastructure, including motorable roads. As per the World Bank report, 21% of the Bhutanese rural households have to walk from one to four hours to the nearest all-season road, and another 21% have to spend more than half a day. Bhutan’s trade suffers from the typical problems that affect all landlocked countries which require transit facilities through neighboring countries. These include excessive delays at ports, inefficiencies at land border crossings, limits on the routes allowed for transit cargo, and limits on the use of the landlocked country’s own transport companies. The competitiveness of Bhutan’s exports is further reduced by the high transportation costs within the country and unbalanced trade flows, reflected by a shortage of back loads. Bhutan’s international trade is solely reliant on the Kolkata Port in India, using the transit corridor on the Indo-Bhutan border at Phuentsholing. The development of the soft side of trade-related transport logistics, such as harmonization of documents and procedures, needs greater attention. This kind of unsupportive infrastructure environment is really a big hurdle for setting up of self employed business. Because poor infrastructure has leading consequences which hamper other important activities of business like procurement of raw materials, good distribution channels for finished goods, service after sales if it is required etc. High-quality and effective infrastructural amenities are necessities to start business from scratch till last operation of business.
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4. Poor Technological State of the country: Technology has shown vast changes in the lifestyle of mankind over the many years. It has contributed to a lot of revolutionary ideas and changes in the structuring and functioning of society. It has made its presence felt in every area of human existence. Therefore, its contribution to the world of commerce is no less. Economy forms the major backbone of any society. So, the emergence of technology in the field of business automatically affects the whole dynamic structure of the entire civilization. Once the firm has decided on the foremost issues of which product it wants to produce and the location of the industry, the next important step is to select appropriate technology and equipment to produce the same.
5. Problem of procurement of resources: Before starting up of business, entrepreneur has to do identify availability of raw materials and other resources to run business operations. The requirements of all these can either be met through domestic sources or can be imported subject to the regulatory requirements of the Government. The regulatory requirements pertaining to the import procedures vary depending on the item of import.
6. High Risks Involved: Entrepreneurship name itself a synonym of risk taking activities. With entrepreneurial activities various kind of risks are associated like market and opportunity risk , competitive risk , financial risk , political and economic risk , technology risk , operational risk as well as environmental risk . Before starting up of business, an entrepreneur has to do all analysis in respect of all risks which are associated with self employed business.
SEZ: A Solution to All these Problems 1. Flexible licensing policies: A SEZ offers leniency and flexibility in the licensing policy from the side of the government. In most of the SEZ already existing, it has been observed that the office of the licensing authorities already stations in the area of SEZ, making it more accessible, convenient and prompt. 2. Easy to start a business: Flexible licensing policy along with sufficient amount of consideration in the time consumption of starting a business enables the promoters of a business to start their working in a very small duration. In SEZ, the government 11
motivational programmes make registering and formation of businesses very quick and convenient. 3. Ease of Doing Business: The Flexibility of the government with respect to policies, rules and regulations offers appropriate amount of liberty to the businesses to operate and function. In SEZ, many Laws specially related to Industry, Labour, and Ecology are exempted. This will motivate people to work and grow which is otherwise not possible in rest part of the country where SEZ is not present. 4. Ease of getting credit and Development of Financial Markets: The establishment of SEZ also creates opportunities for the Banks and other Financial Institutes to open-up their facilities in the SEZ area. The establishment of these financial Institutes boosts up the financial market for that area by making the schemes available and accessible to all the businesses of that area. Many a times, government also intervenes in the schemes of these institutes and asks them to create some special schemes which can target the requirement of businesses in SEZ. If Government can establish specialized financial institutes which may facilitate the micro financing it can encourage large amount of entrepreneurs to seek opportunity in forming a business and contributing to the economy. 5. Exemption from taxes: One of the very important features of SEZ is Exemption from taxes commonly known as Tax Holidays. This is a compulsory exemption from taxes which a firm enjoys for a particular period of time; however, this facility can be extended to lifetime by the approval of the statutory body. 6. Creation of more job opportunities: The creation of business directly means creation of Job opportunities. These job opportunities also include self-employment. In SEZ as large number of firms exists therefore there is enough availability employment opportunities which helps in scaling down the burden on the government with respect to employment. 7. In-flow of skilled workforce: In the development phase of the SEZ when large organizations are setting up their businesses, they require better technology and resources to take the advantage of the facilities of the government. For handling those resources and technology, they need skilled workforce to work in their organization. This In-Flow of Skilled workforce acts as trainers for the people working under them and hence the multiplier effect of the skill finds prominence in the environment.
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8. Improvement in Infrastructure: It has been witnessed that SEZ invites more FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) ensuring more funds available to both parties i.e. The Government as well as to Corporate to built better infrastructure in terms of Road, Communication, power, Water supplies etc. The SEZ also promotes the human settlement in the nearby areas which also aids the infrastructure of the SEZ. 9. Improvement in the technological state of the nation: The FDI, Tax holidays, Ease of getting credit and other regulatory exemptions creates more money available with the businesses to spend on growth, research and development and most importantly, on the import of better technology in the economy. Also, with the advent of big organizations also the newer technology penetrates into the business. As these technology are already in possession of the business. In SEZ the advantage is that every business in the identical industry gets exposed to the newest technology available nearby and tries to possess it in order to have the competitive advantage. By this the cost of production is reduced, which can curb the economic problems related to inflation. 10. Easy to procure resources: SEZ also becomes a potential market for Business to business (B2B) transactions by facilitating suppliers to target more business buyers easily and effectively. This opportunity is bilateral as the buyers also get suppliers and their supplies easily and effectively. 11. Minimization of risk: According to Business links an official department in government of UK there are four types of Risks: a. Strategic, for example a competitor coming on to the market. b. Compliance, for example responding to the introduction of new health and safety legislation. c. Financial, for example non-payment by a customer or increased interest charges on a business loan. d. Operational, for example the breakdown or theft of key equipment. In case of SEZ a business can minimize the risk of risk related to compliance, financial and operations to the highest extend. As for compliance, minimal amount of regulations only exist for SEZ; tax holidays, credits at low interest rates, minimizes the financial burden and hence minimizes the financial risk. Availability of better technology, skilled labour, infrastructure and 13
easy procurement of the resources reduces the operational risk. To some extent the firms can make better strategies as they enjoy competitive advantage to those competitors whose business is outside SEZ.
Role of Micro Finance in promoting Entrepreneurship The micro finance has large potential in promoting entrepreneurship in the country. The micro Finance offers special Facilities form the promotion of agriculture, cottage industries, Micro; small and medium size enterprise in a country. Many a times they also organize special sessions like workshop, seminars and training sessions for the promotion and awareness of the entrepreneurs. The existence of the micro finance become very important as the entrepreneurship is still an under-develop sector in the country. And they not only require credit at promptly and easily but they also seek support with regards to their development and expert guidance. So, if the ease of business can be offered along with ease of credit and guidance, it may lead to better condition of the entrepreneurs of the country along with the economic prosperity.
Conclusions 1. The need for Entrepreneur is very getting more importance for the country in order to make country Self Reliant, to overcome the problem of Dependent Economy, to improve the nations’ image, to promote localization, and to Converting people from Non-productive to productive. 2. Bhutan has variety of problems because of which the businesses are not able to grow; the major problems are related Licensing policies, Starting a Business, Ease of Doing a Business, Getting Credit, Paying Taxes. 3. The secondary problems are related to peoples’ Inclination towards Government Job, Lack of Skilled People, Infrastructure, Financial Support, Poor Technological State of the country, Problem of procurement of resources, High Risk Involved. 4. All these problems cannot be solved at the government level and hence the publicgovernment partnership can be an only solution. The public will be motivated to participate only when sufficient amount of support is given by the government these support can be in the form of Tax Exemption, exemption from other regulations and rules which is hampering the overall functioning of the businesses. 14
5. The exemption of the taxes, rules and regulation is not feasible to be applied at the national level and hence, Special Economic Zone could be a potential solution for overcoming all these problem listed above. 6. The problem related to the credit is not going to be solved by the banks only; the need is to develop the overall financial market in the country by establishing specialised financial institutes which can cater to the requirement of different sectors through specialized approach in developing that sector. 7. In Bhutan, special emphasis is to be given to the promotion of Cottage Industries and MSME’s for the development of which Micro Financing is required through micro-finance institutes.
Recommendations 1. The government should focus more seriously in the establishment of the proposed SEZ. 2. In Every SEZ the government should ensure the establishment of Licensing offices, Banks, and other regulatory benches for better accessibility of the businesses. 3. In all the SEZ the government should create some opportunity for the MSMEs and Entrepreneurs in the form of special packages and discounts. 4. The government should allow hiring of more technical and skilled persons from outside for the businesses on the condition of training the domestic workforce. 5. There should be establishment of specialized micro financial institute which can offer better services to the entrepreneurs and MSMEs. 6. The MSMEs in SEZ should be made well aware about the vision of the country behind the opening of such Zone and should be requested to work in line to achieve it. 7. The need is also to allow big size firms to operate in these economic zones in order to improve the technological and infrastructural state of the country. 8. The establishment of SEZ is not going to give immediate solution for problems but it may ensure solution in three to four year.
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References 1. www.businessbhutan.bt/?p=4197 2. http://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2012/countries/bhutan.pdf 3. http://www.nirvanaexpeditions.com/aboutbhutan/culturalheritage.htm 4. http://www.drukpa.bt/bhutan/201/qa-with-lyonpo-dorji-wangdi-minister-of-labour-andhuman-resources/ 5. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1074405311&type=RESOU RCES 6. Athukorala, P., (1997). ‘Foreign Direct Investment and Manufacturing for Exports’, in W.D. Laxman (ed.), Dilemmas of Development Fifty years of Economic Change in Sri Lanka, pp.386-422.Colombo. 7. CIA World Fact Book 8. Doing Business in Asia-Bhutan by World Bank- Bhutan WB report.pdf 9. Jenkins, M., O. Esquivel, and Felipe Larrain B. (1998). ‘Export Processing Zones in CentralAmerica’, Development Discussion Paper no. 646, Harvard Institute for InternationalDevelopment, Harvard University, MA, August. 10. Litwack, J.M., AND Y. Y. Qian (1998), .Balanced or Unbalanced Development: Special Economic Zones as Catalysts for Transition,.Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 26(1), 117-141. 11. Milberg W. (2007). Exporting Processing Zones, Industrial Upgrading and Economic Development: A Survey, SCEPA Working Papers 2007-10, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), New School University. 12. World Bank. 1992. “Export Processing Zones.” Policy and Research Series, Volume 20, Industry Development Division (March). 13. World Bank (2008). Special Economic Zones: Performance, Lessons Learned,and Implications for Zone Development. 14. World Bank. 2009. “Clusters for Competitiveness: A Practical Guide and Policy Implications for Developing Cluster Initiatives.” International Trade Department, PREM Network, Report, World Bank, Washington, DC. ****************
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