Hondura's Experiment in Massive Free Market City Building

Can Honduras develop it's own Hong Kong by enabling free market "startup cities"? The sleepy city of Trujillo is selected for the country's first experiment.

1 minute read

December 25, 2011, 9:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


The Honduran government "wants to create what amounts to internal start-ups-quasi-independent city-states that begin with a clean slate and are then overseen by outside experts. They will have their own government, write their own laws, manage their own currency and, eventually, hold their own elections."

The proposed regions are "modeled on a concept called 'charter cities' developed by Paul Romer, an economics professor at New York University. The principle is simple: take a piece of uninhabited land big enough for a city of several million, govern it by well-tried rules and let those who like the idea move there. The aim is to replicate the success of such places as Hong Kong, not as colonial outposts but as models of development."

Thanks to Peter Gordon

Saturday, December 10, 2011 in The Economist

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