Aren’t the cities that the world needs springing up naturally? Why do we need the construct of a charter city to encourage faster or better urbanization?
Paul Romer answers these questions and more from Dwyer Gunn at the Freakonomics blog.
Freakonomics Q&A
Which City Charter was Established by Treaty in 1984?
Bob Haywood is the former head of the World Economic Processing Zones Association and the current executive director of the One Earth Future foundation. He wrote in with an interesting example: a recent treaty between two countries that specified the charter for a city.
In 1984, China and the UK signed a treaty called the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It specified the charter under which Hong Kong would operate for 50 years after the handover to China in 1997. The Declaration, together with the Basic Law passed by the Chinese to implement its provisions, specified in great detail what the existing rules were in Hong Kong and how they would be maintained.
Charter Cities in the Media
Charter cities have been recently featured in several publications: The Boston Globe, Forbes (article), Forbes (video), Newsweek.
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