Not many people get excited about visiting a special economic zone, but I am one of these sad people, therefore U jumped at the chance to visit the Manhattan SEZ!
What’s and SEZ then?
I’m gonna write a long boring article about what and SEZ is at some point, but to summarise it is a special zone that offers tax incentives, or other favourable terms to promote trade. They are are often utilised in developing economies such as Cambodia and tend to be situated on border areas.
And as for my obsession with SEZ’s well that all started in North Korea and my many travels to the Rason SEZ, which I am weirdly an expert in.
To read about the Rason SEZ click here.
What’s the Manhattan SEZ
The Manhattan SEZ wad formed in 2005 as the first of such in Cambodia. It is owned by the colourful Clement Yang of Taiwan and is not only huge, but employs like 36,000 people, no small potatoes.
It is located in Bavet, which is in Svay Rieng province. There is no reason to go o Svay Rieng other than to watch football, or go to Vietnam. Bavetis located on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia.
Since its formation loads of other SEZ’s have been formed in Cambodia, but this is the biggest and accounts for 5 percent of all exports from the country. OK so economics lesson over.
Photo: Manhattan Special Economic Zone
Why would you visit the Manhattan SEZ?
There’s;oterally no reason to visit here as even if you were going to stop before the Vietnamese border then there is the actual town of Bavet, although it seemingly has even less going on than the MSEZ as the cool kids call it.
To read about CP Five Star click here.
I was here to witness the opening of a glove factory! Although in my defence there was also other important people there, such as military head and potential future P/M of Cambodia H.E Hun Manet.
The factory was pretty interesting though in fairness.
Wat can you do at the Manhattan SEZ?
As discussed the main thing to do here is to look at factories, visit factories, or work at a factory, but this is all about to change because they are gonna try to convert it and Bavet into a green carbon neutral city by 2030.
To read about the newest glove factory in town click here.
In the meantime though if you happen to visit there are a bynhc of stores selling crap that you could take over the border and sell in Vietnam, some Bavet Street Food and a weird Chinese hotel, namely the Red House Garden Hotel, which is et up for Chinese investors and has a decent Chinese restaurant to be fair. Oh and it also has a pool.
So, while you may not make a beeline to visit the Manhattan SEZ, should you weirdly find yourself here, there is kinda stuff to do. Oh and top tip – come just after 5pm when everyone finishes work to get that cool “schools out “ feel.