Charter cities: using urbanization to boost development
Economist Paul Romer has an interesting take on getting third-world countries out of poverty. His idea: to build “charter cities” operated under an independent jurisdiction, just like Hong Kong used to be. Think Canada taking over Guantánamo Bay for a while to oversee its development. Romer’s plan might be ambitious and extravagant, but it has nonetheless been generating a great deal of interest.
Read a Q&A with Romer on the New York Times’ Freakonomics blog.
Visit the project’s website.
Watch Romer’s TED talk: