The first African Union Symposium on Special Economic Zones and Industrial Development takes place at the Best Western Plus Lusaka Grand Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia from 7-10 November 2017.

The objective of the Symposium is to provide a platform for policy-makers, practitioners, financial institutions, multilateral organizations and academia to exchange views and experiences on how special economic zones (SEZs) can be utilized as vehicles for sustainable industrialization in African countries.

The Symposium is guided by the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and its First 10-year Implementation Plan, the Action Plan for the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA), the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In particular, the Symposium will:

• Share African SEZ success stories and foster the exchange of lessons learned;

• Identify SEZ development and management needs of African governments;

• Facilitate the exchange of experiences among African SEZ policy-makers, developers and managers as well as interaction with their international counterparts;

• Showcase how SEZs can drive sustainable development in Africa;

• Collect ideas for the development of an Africa SEZ Network and an African Union-China SEZ Study Tour Programme.