Thibault Serlet
Director of Research
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Thibault founded the Startup Societies Foundation in 2015, a nonprofit which studies and promotes Special Economic Zones and new city projects. He is on the board of advisors of the Center for Innovative Governance Research, and has worked at several startups in the cybersecurity, hardware, and blockchain fields.


Latest Posts
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Last year, governments worldwide spent more than a trillion dollars building new cities from scratch. This is bound to create many new unprecedented opportunities for construction tendering.

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Sorting through the confusing terminology of planned communities and planned cities.

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South African Special Economic Zones (SEZs) hope to cash in on the growing trend of global cannabis legalization.

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Since 2019, Indonesia has embarked on a process to create the world’s largest green economic zones - can Indonesia become Asia’s first green industrial giant?

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How internal migration prevents SEZs from increasing local wages in the areas where they are located.

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Job training or knowledge transfer is often cited as one of the most important benefits of SEZs. But does the academic literature validate these claims?

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A simple guide to all of the tax incentives that you can find in Special Economic Zones around the world.

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Come join our virtual launch event on Monday October 25th 2021 as we publicly unveil the world’s largest ever SEZ dataset.

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Honduras ZEDEs are a radical attempt at creating private cities to alleviate poverty and stimulate the economy. The program has been met with significant controversy. Prominent Honduran ZEDE lawyer Jorge Colindres discusses the most common anti-ZEDE arguments with Thibault Serlet.

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Adrianople Group Director of Research Thibault Serlet explains how SEZs saved China from the great famine of the 1950s. This talk was given virtually at Carnegie Mellon University’s Kigali’s virtual job fair on April 30 2021.

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Estimating the number of SEZs in existence worldwide is a nearly impossible task due to the diversity of definitions and poor data. Despite that, several organizations have attempted to make global maps counting the total number of SEZs in existence.

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Peter Santenello discusses his trips to so-called “dangerous” countries and reminds us all that the people living in those places are just as human as us.

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We will be speaking at the upcoming Startup Societies virtual conference! Come join us to talk to investors and entrepreneurs in the economic zone industry from around the world

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Former CIA officer and Vice Chairman of Jefferson Waterman International Sam Wyman discusses the geopolitical risks that businesses face in the modern world.

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A list of the top port and maritime conferences in 2020

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Many news media outlets have recently covered plans to create "supercharged freeports" in the UK. But what exactly is a "supercharged freeport" and what does it mean for businesses in the UK?

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The top gambling conferences of late 2019 and 2020

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Daniel T. Griswold talks about US China trade wars, Brexit, and the case for free trade.

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Former US Ambassador to Mali and Madagascar Vicki Huddleston talks about security issues in the Sahel, how the situation has changed since 1998, and hope for Mali.

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The top offshore finance and investment immigration conferences in late 2019 and early 2020

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Erik Autor talks about Foreign Trade Zones, political lobbies, trade wars, and customs

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Learn about the top drone conferences in Q3 and Q4 2019, as well as in Q1 2020

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A list of the top hybrid warfare / counterinsurgency conferences in 2019 and 2020

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The top anti money laundering, anti fraud, and anti-financial crime conferences of late 2019

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A recap of the top business intelligence conferences in 2019 and 2020.

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Top Customs, Migration, and Border Security Conferences in 2019 and 2020. A comprehensive list of key industry conferences in 2019 and 2020.

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A comprehensive list of the world's top port conferences in the second half of 2019.

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The 7 most common mistakes made by people who run special economic zones - and how to avoid them

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The 10 most important things to remember when building a Special Economic Zone

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