What have the Romans ever done for us? is the rhetorical question posed by the rabble-rouser Reg in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, to which the reply comes from his audience: aqueducts, roads, education, wine, peace etc.
Colonial occupiers do not get a good press, rightly in many ways, but they often bring infrastructure and other benefits such as the rule of law to colonised countries.
Paul Romer, a Stanford economist, wants to bring back some of the benefits of colonisation without the nasty aspects. He believes developing countries should partner with developed ones to create special economic zones – or “charter cities” – as a means of boosting local economic development.
Prof Romer made the argument at TED Global this morning that developing countries should create their own equivalents of Hong Kong, the city state run for a time by the British and then assumed into China.
Hong Kong, with its free market system, independent courts and efficient administration became a model for economic development across China, he argued.
“Britain inadvertently through its actions in Hong Kong did more to reduce world poverty than all the aid programmes we have seen throughout the world,” he said.
Prof Romer’s first suggestion for a zone which could be developed on behalf of, or in partnership with, a poor country? Guantanamo Bay, which he suggests Cuba could charter Canada to develop on its behalf, assuming it would not want the United States to do so.
