The paper assesses UNIDO’s experience in the development of SEZs and IPs in developing countries based on its function of providing policy advice, its convening power and normative role as well as standard-setting activities. In the same vein, it examines UNIDO’s contribution to the development of SEZs and IPs in China.

UNIDO’s involvement in China’s industrial transformation and technology upgrading within the framework of UNDP Country Programmes initiated in the late 1970s coincided with the country’s reform and opening up, and gradually increased in the 1980s and 1990s. UNIDO focused on capacity-building, industrial policy advice, investment promotion and the introduction of advanced management skills and technologies in China. Among others, UNIDO has consistently provided technical support for the development of SEZs and IPs since the 1980s