Free Trade Zones: Means to Export Promotion Strategy, a Comparative Study of Iran and Three Other Asian Countries

Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have been adopted by many developing countries to move from inward looking toward outward looking strategies. This paper hints that EPZs are instruments of export promoting strategies and compares EPZs in South Korea, China, India and Iran from the aspects of goals, background, incentive policies and contribution to total country exports. Results indicate that S-Korea and China successfully used EPZs for clear goals within their export promoting strategies. But in Iran, like India in the last century, these zones have not been established within any clear trade and industrial strategy. So, in spite of many preferential and incentive policies adopted in Iran's Free Trade Zones, these zones could not play a significant role in export and industrial promotion in the country.