Industrial parks 'key to making progress on growth'

Industrial parks have been successful in kick-starting economic development, even in some of the world's most underdeveloped economies, according to former World Bank chief economist Justin Yifu Lin.

"In countries like Ethiopia and Rwanda, ... nobody would have expected a local factory to be a competitive exporter in global markets," Lin told a news conference on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on Tuesday.

Lin said conventional economic wisdom agreed that a shortage of infrastructure and skilled labor were the major bottlenecks that hindered underdeveloped economies.