A charter city is a type of city in which a guarantor from a developed country would create a city within a developing host country. The guarantor would administer the region, with the power to create their own laws, judiciary, and immigration policies outside of the control of the host country.
[ Charter cities were first proposed by economist ]Paul Romer
Paul Michael Romer (born November 6, 1955) is an American economist and policy entrepreneur who is a Seidner University Professor in Finance at Boston College. Romer is best known as the former Chief Economist of the World Bank and for co- ...
in a 2009 TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
.
According to Romer, international charter cities would be a benefit to citizens by giving them an additional option about what system of economic policies they want to live under. In his vision, charter cities would adopt more pro-business policies than the host country, including lower taxes, fewer regulations, and protection of property rights, which would encourage international investment. Romer gives Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
as an example, which he argues encouraged economic growth.[Concept](_blank)
from chartercities.org
Examples
After a meeting of Romer with president Marc Ravalomanana
Marc Ravalomanana (; born 12 December 1949) is a Malagasy politician who served as the sixth List of presidents of Madagascar, president of Madagascar from 2002 to 2009. Born into a farming Merina people, Merina family in Imerinkasinina, near th ...
of Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
in 2008, Ravalomanana considered the idea of creating two charter cities. However, the plan was scrapped when the political leadership that supported the idea was removed from power.
In 2011, the government of Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
considered creating a charter city, though without the oversight of a third-party government. Romer served as chair of a "transparency committee", but resigned in September 2012 when the Honduran government agency responsible for the project signed agreements with international developers without knowledge of the committee. In October 2012 the Honduran Supreme Court declared charter cities to be unconstitutional because the laws of Honduras would not be applicable there.Tim Draper
Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), , proposed a cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Individual coin ownership record ...
-based Special Economic Zone in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. A memorandum of understanding established Ledger Atlas as the governing entity, able to control migration, enact laws and issue passports. The proposal did not move forward, however.
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
president Nayib Bukele
Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who has served as the 81st president of El Salvador since 2019.
In 1999, Bukele established an advertising company and worked at an advertising com ...
announced plans for Bitcoin City
Bitcoin City is a planned smart city project in La Unión, El Salvador. The planned city is intended to be a tax haven, and to use geothermal energy to power Bitcoin mining. The feasibility of its reliance on both geothermal energy and Bitcoin h ...
, a Bitcoin
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
-based charter city, in November 2021.
As of January 2023, several charter city projects are under development across Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigerian technology entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is building Itana as a hub for African tech workers outside Lagos
Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
. Other African charter cities include Nkwashi, Zambia
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
, slated to host an African School of Economics campus, and Silicon Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
, a new tech hub located on the Tanzanian island. The Rwanda Development Board has also announced plans to establish a catalytic investment fund for charter city projects across Africa.[{{cite web , title=Rwanda Development Board and Charter Cities Institute Sign Game-Changing Memorandum of Understanding Aimed at Urban Transformation , url=https://chartercitiesinstitute.org/press-releases/rwanda-development-board-and-charter-cities-institute-sign-game-changing-memorandum-of-understanding-aimed-at-urban-transformation/ , publisher=Charter Cities Institute , access-date=19 January 2023]
See also
* Micronation
A micronation is a polity, political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from list o ...
* Zone for Employment and Economic Development (Honduras)
* Special administrative region
* Urban Enterprise Zone
An urban enterprise zone is an area in which policies to encourage economic growth and development are implemented. Urban enterprise zone policies generally offer tax concessions, infrastructure incentives, and reduced regulations to attract invest ...
References
External links
Charter Cities global Information
Charter Cities Institute
International development
Planned communities