Zonas francas industriais: que perspectivas para Moçambique?

Abstract

Industrial free zones (ZFís) are formed with a view to creating foreign exchange, employment in a short period of time and links between industries, attracting foreign direct investment and stimulating strategic sectors of the economy. The first industrial free zones emerged in the 1950s and people joined them as a way to industrialize, for example Mauritius and Togo, or to promote their exports, for example, South Korea and Taiwan, totaling 847 in 1987. In reality, the exact number of these zones is controversial due to the variety of definitions of ZFIs. Although several, these definitions converge in the fact that they convey the idea of ​​an industrial park with certain characteristics, where firms that operate there have special incentives and produce basically for export. Currently, several countries grant ZFI status to isolated companies that are not operating in delimited industrial parks. Economic studies present some theories to answer two questions, namely, whether the welfare of the host country of an IFZ is higher with foreign capital invested there or, alternatively, in another domestic activity, and whether the welfare of the nation rises. or low after the establishment of a ZFI. However, there are no finished economic theories that explain these questions. Some are the result of simple non-comprehensive statistical observations, while others are based on the basic Hecksher-Olin model which is quite simplistic. Despite their weaknesses, these models contribute to explaining the existence of an ambiguous effect on a country when implementing ZFIs. The most practical way to predict or measure the performance of a ZFI is the cost-benefit analysis. This assesses the costs incurred by the country for the operation of the zones and balances them with the benefits that these zones bring to the country. The cost-benefit analysis allows visualizing the global gains brought by a ZFI, taking into account the opportunity cost of each resource applied in the area, which until now has not been done in Mozambique. International competition indicates that only ZFIs will survive if, in addition to political will, they are: i) well located and with good infrastructure; ii) prepared to shorten the delivery time for orders to customers; iii) planned to enable technology transfer; iv) accompanied by economic integration; v) developed giving great importance to the provision of some international services; vi) ready to offer attractive incentives to investors; and, finally, vii) able to implement an industrialization policy aimed at certain sectors. . Mozambique is creating ZFIs, some of which are already in operation, e.g., the Zona Franca Industrial da Mozal. The first should have been created in Nacala and Nampula, for a strategic reason to develop the northern region of the country. However, this was not possible due to lack of conditions, eg poor infrastructure. Currently, most of the ZFIs created are in the south.