From the mid-1990s Northeast Asia saw a proliferation of different kinds of industrial parks. As of now, a number of these areas including eco-parks, cross-border economic zones and logistics parks have been established. Industrial Parks can play a major role in job creation, spurring innovation and even contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. However, aligning policies and the knowledge related to the planning and management of these parks to tap into greater regional synergies remain underutilised. At the same time, valuable experiences and lessons learned have been accumulated in the region especially across the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) member countries: Russian Federation, Mongolia, PR China and Republic of Korea.
To foster knowledge exchange in that regard, Jilin Province hosted a Policy Dialogue on Industrial Parks on September 5, 2018, in Changchun. The Economic and Technological Cooperation Department of Jilin Provincial Government organised the meeting with the support from the GTI Secretariat, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MofCom).
To channel the outcome of the dialogue, GIZ supported the secretariat in GTI’s first Policy Brief. It addresses the unlocking of economic development potential through optimising special economic zones like industrial parks and cross-border economic cooperation between GTI member countries. Based on the summarised data, it provides a concise and informative basis for future planning and implementation of growth-generating and sustainable cooperation in the Greater Tumen Region.