(2011-12-20) Honduras Charter Cities

The Honduran (Honduras) government wants to create what amounts to internal start-ups—quasi-independent City State-s 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 Honduran regions are modelled on a concept called “CharterCity-s” developed by Paul Romer, an economics professor at New York University.

In addition to a big special development region, the Honduran government intends to approve two smaller zones. And two libertarian-leaning start-ups have already signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding with the Honduran government to develop them. One firm goes by the name of FutureCities Development Corporation. It was co-founded by Patri Friedman, a grandson of Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate in economics, and until recently executive director of the Sea-Steading Institute, a group producing research on how to build ocean-based communes. The other is called Grupo Ciudades Libres (Free Cities Group) and is the brainchild of Michael Strong and KevinLyons, two Entrepreneur-s and Libertarian activists.

Sept06'2012 update: the government signed a "memorandum of understanding" with a group of international investors on Tuesday. That group is MGK, which includes Michael Strong - here is their FAQ. Paul Romer got left aside in this process: He believed that a temporary transparency commission he had formed with a group of well-known experts should have been consulted. He withdrew from the project.

May'2013 update. In January a second round of constitutional amendments to legalize free zones passed through Congress the requisite two times. Still ahead: the more complicated task of the new statute laying out the leeway those zones will have and the rules by which they will interface with Honduras proper.