The United Arab Emirate's (UAE) economic diversification efforts, both positive and negative, actual and proposed, should be used as a model for the other Gulf Cooperation Council (Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE) members. A majority of the GCC countries rely heavily on oil and have underdeveloped non-oil sectors, the exception is the United Arab Emirates. The UAE began diversifying its economy long ago, and though oil is still the backbone of its economy, the non-oil sector is starting to successfully take shape. The other GCC members should use the UAE's economic program as a model so economic stability will not falter when the oil reserves are depleted.

This paper focuses on the the interplay between Free Trade Zones (FTZs) and labour rights. It seeks to determine the effects of FTZs on the full realization of labour rights in Mozambique and Namibia. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Paulo Comoane of the Unicersidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

In processes of economic integration, neoliberal discourse and corresponding notions of development comprise some of the most readily available imaginaries of political and social interaction and change. However, these processes are always also locally produced and negotiated. Engaging with discourse theory, Marxism and postcolonial feminist theory, this dissertation brings together “macro” and “micro” aspects of globalization. The aim is to interrogate discursive reinforcements of and challenges to global orders of production and divisions of labor. With a focus on representations of Free Trade Zones (FTZs), which are tax-exempted enclaves for export production, the study explores competing meanings attributed to the operation of transnational capital in Nicaragua. Based on policy documents, political speeches, promotional videotapes and interviews, the political rhetoric of two governments with competing agendas is analyzed: the neoliberal/conservative government of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (2002–2007), which framed the FTZs in terms of national progress, and the leftist government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (2007– ), which attempts to reconnect to the country’s revolutionary past. In this way efforts to formulate legitimate political agendas in the context of shifting relations between states and markets are detailed, together with constructions of citizens and workers along differentiations of class and gender. Relying on interviews with FTZ workers, the study examines ways to interpret, inhabit or resist imperative subject positions at the intersections of contending projects of nation-building and transnational orders of production, in conjunction with a discussion of the uneasy distinction between representation and appropriation that troubles transnational feminist research projects.