Can Honduras develop it's own Hong Kong by enabling free market "startup cities"? The sleepy city of Trujillo is selected for the country's first experiment.
The Honduran government "wants to create what amounts to internal start-ups-quasi-independent city-states that begin with a clean slate and are then overseen by outside experts. They will have their own government, write their own laws, manage their own currency and, eventually, hold their own elections."
The proposed regions are "modeled on a concept called 'charter cities' developed by Paul Romer, an economics professor at New York University. The principle is simple: take a piece of uninhabited land big enough for a city of several million, govern it by well-tried rules and let those who like the idea move there. The aim is to replicate the success of such places as Hong Kong, not as colonial outposts but as models of development."
Thanks to Peter Gordon
FULL STORY: City building Hong Kong in Honduras
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research