Available Online at www.e-iph.co.uk Indexed in Clarivate Analytics WoS, and ScienceOPEN AIVCE-BS-1, 2020ShahAlam https://www.amerabra.org; https://fspu.uitm.edu.my/cebs; https://www.emasemasresources.com/ AMEABRA International Virtual Conference on Environment-Bahaviour Studies, 1 st Series cE-Bs, FSPU, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 24-25 Jun 2020 eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.2270 Establishment of Bukit Kayu Hitam as a Special Border Economic Zone (SBEZ): Global lessons Muhammad Fadhlullah Najimudin 1 , Nuarrual Hilal Md Dahlan 2 , Mohd Zakhiri Md. Nor 3 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2 Professor of Law, School of Law, College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia 3 Senior Lecturer, School of Law, College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia fadhlullah.najimudin@gmail.com, nuarrualhilal@uum.edu.my, zakhiri@uum.edu.my Tel: +6010-401 8801 Abstract Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is one of the known mechanisms to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Nevertheless, there was a global mix reaction towards its successful implementation with a few operational failures, especially in the area of its legal framework. Therefore, this paper aim is to explore the success and failure experience to be a reference for the development of Special Border Economic Zone at Bukit Kayu Hitam using qualitative textual analysis. It finds that two significant issues in SEZs; regulatory/ legal framework, and development spill-over. Keywords: Special Economic Zones; Land Use Planning Law; Policy Implementation; Bukit Kayu Hitam eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.2270 1.0 Introduction Economic development, without doubt, is the backbone of a particular country. The economic growth will be the yardstick in determining the success of a nation. For a developing or less developed country, the involvement of foreign investors is crucial to ensure that their economy can become more potent (Dorozyński et al., 2016). Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is one of the potential tools to increase economic growth. Johnson (2006) discussed that FDI does not only increase the economic growth of the host country, but the country also benefits from technology spill-over from the FDI that operate in their country. Most of the countries' policymakers have innovatively created various incentives to attract investors (e.g., tax incentives, export processing zones, economic zone, tariffs, subsidies). The implementation of FDI is assumed to create a remarkable impact on local economic development (Dorozyński et al., 2016). Thus, to spur the economic growth of a country, policymakers should not only emphasise the local economy or investment flow only, but they should also invite more FDIs to the host country. One of the critical policy mechanisms that have been implemented in most countries to attract investment, especially for industrial development, is Special Economic Zones (SEZs). SEZs can be generally defined as demarcated geographic areas contained within a country's national boundaries, where the rules of business are different from those that prevail in the national territory (Farole & Akinci, 2011). These differential rules principally deal with investment conditions, international trade and customs, taxation, as well as the regulatory environment which intended to be more politically liberal and administratively competent than other areas of that particular national territory (Farole & Moberg, 2017). Up to this point, there was a globally mixed reaction with major succeeding projects in Asian