Isan Border Special Economic Zone under Neo-liberalism and State as “a land broker”: A case study of Mukdahan Special Economic Zone

Abstract

This paper examines the role that neoliberalism plays in the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Thailand’s Northeast (Isan) region. Data presented in this paper was collected by using qualitative research techniques including in-dept interviews, non-participatory observation, focus group discussions and secondary data. The paper discusses that the Thai State uses SEZs as one tool to create a new space for economic activities along its border. The aim of SEZs is to manage and control economic development in these areas by exempting them from existing policies and offering numerous legal and tax privileges. The state recognizes Isan and its border areas as impoverished but have a lot of potentials for border development. Thus, Isan is strategically suitable for such development because the region is a gateway to economic and trade transactions between neighboring countries, namely, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Businesses have already benefited from the Economic Corridor, transportation routes, international labor force, investment incentives, and one-stop service packages. The paper argues that the government has acted as “a land broker” for private businesses in its support of neoliberalism through SEZ projects. It furnishes private companies with land plots serving the companies and as a result attracting further investments rather than protecting local stakeholder’s rights. By doing this it turns once communal land into a private commodity. This leaves many economic, social, and environmental risks that can potentially affect local communities who would lose their land to the development of SEZs.