DIEZ to Build Global Research Center for Economic Zones
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum approved a strategy to create a DIEZ-run institution that will advise economic zones, set common standards and publish benchmarks.
Dubai's integrated economic zones authority will set up a research institution to advise special economic zones worldwide, draft shared operating standards for them and publish tools for measuring what they add to their host economies.
The body will operate under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who chairs the authority, approved the strategy behind it. The center is intended to give zones research, policy advice and analytical instruments that help them pull in high-value foreign investment, grow trade and move knowledge and technology across borders.
Governance and membership
A board of directors of seven to nine people will oversee the institution. Members are expected to bring expertise in economic policy, the management of economic zones, and academic or research institutions. Alongside the board, a Global Advisory Committee of 15 to 25 members will draw policymakers, subject experts and representatives of international institutions, private companies and the investment community.
Standards, benchmarks and advice
The center's work is built around evidence and analysis rather than advocacy. Its researchers are to produce specialised studies, economic policy briefs, databases, international benchmarks and operational standards, and to harmonise the way zones classify themselves and their activities so that performance can be compared across countries. It will also advise governments on legislation and institutional design, host regulatory sandboxes, and offer strategic planning, consultancy and executive training.
Its data and analytical tools are meant to do two jobs: measure economic impact and flag investment opportunities, and assess how zones contribute to drawing in companies, expanding trade and creating jobs. International forums and partnerships will be used to connect governments, zone authorities, investors and research bodies. Potential partners named in the plan include universities, multilateral organisations, consultancy firms, data providers and technology companies.
The emphasis on comparability is deliberate. Zones have historically reported their activity in formats shaped by their own legal structures, which makes cross-border comparison awkward and complicates the choice facing a company deciding where to base operations.
Two arms, one institution
The operating model separates nonprofit activity — foundational research, knowledge creation and events — from a commercial arm that sells consultancy and specialised services.
Sheikh Ahmed said Dubai had assembled an ecosystem that combines purpose-built infrastructure, adaptable rules, services tailored to particular industries and reach into overseas markets, and that the new body would carry that experience beyond the emirate. He described it as an institutional platform where governments, zone authorities, international organisations, universities and independent experts can work together, and said the authority's experience running its three zones would keep the research tied to practice.
The zones sector has grown without a shared way of accounting for what it delivers, which leaves investors comparing dissimilar propositions and governments writing rules by analogy. A body that standardises classification and publishes benchmarks gives both sides something firmer to argue over. DIEZ's three zones give the researchers a working test bed close to home.
What the center produces in its first years — the classification framework and the benchmark data — will decide whether it becomes a reference point or another talking shop.
