Founded in 2017, the Charter Cities Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to creating the ecosystem for charter cities. ‍We believe charter cities are the future of development in emerging economies.
Despite the tremendous reduction in global poverty over the past 50 years, governments around the world still struggle to meet the challenges posed by demographic booms, poorly managed urbanization, institutional failure and ever-changing economic conditions. Migration, remittances, and aid have helped alleviate crises, but have failed as comprehensive long-term solutions.

In different corners of the world, individuals and organizations are independently discovering the potential for charter cities — new city developments granted a special jurisdiction and broad governing authority to make their economic environments more competitive — to jumpstart economic growth where previously it remained elusive. Our collaboration with these individuals and groups through technical assistance, events, and targeted research can rapidly accelerate the development of charter cities.

What We Do
The Charter Cities Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to
creating the ecosystem for charter cities.
The Charter Cities Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to building the ecosystem for charter cities. It was founded on the idea that a fresh approach was necessary to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges: global poverty, rapid urbanization, and conflict and migration caused by poverty, war, and climate change. Charter cities—new cities granted a special jurisdiction to create a new governance system—are that solution.

The process to create each new charter city is complex. It requires the collaboration of numerous stakeholders, including new city developers, governments, investors, multi-lateral institutions, and international development experts. By coordinating the efforts of the various stakeholders, it’s possible to accelerate the development of charter cities and lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.
Programs
The Charter Cities Institute consists of three major programs: technical assistance, events, and media.
Research & Technical Assistance: Our team works directly with new city developers and governments to develop the legal frameworks to grant charter cities an independent jurisdiction and to implement the new city’s governance structure.

‍Events: Building the ecosystem for charter cities means connecting the community of individuals passionate about the transformative power of improving governance in every corner of the world. Our events, which include our inaugural Charter Cities Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, regular charter city summits, and meetups in cities across the world, offer these introductions, which we hope will produce both meaningful friendships and meaningful charter city collaborations.
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Media: Our blog offers real-time insight into how we think about charter cities, experiments in governance, and developmental case studies from around the world. The Institute’s twice-monthly newsletter gives an overview of the previous month’s activities, and commentary on charter cities-adjacent activity around the world. Finally, our research aims to establish the economic case for charter cities and inform the decisions of charter city stakeholders.

Our History
Nobel Laureate Paul Romer gave his famous TED talk in 2009 which he introduced the concept of charter cities to the world. Since then, organizations across every continent have come together in a race to build the world’s first successful charter cities.

The Charter Cities Institute started with an insight: numerous stakeholders were interested in charter cities and approaching the idea from different angles, but there was little co-ordination or communication between them.
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Individuals and organizations working in real estate, government, finance, and international development were independently discovering the potential of new cities to chart new developmental courses in countries across the world. Simultaneously, Mark Lutter, founder of the Charter Cities Institute, realized there was an opportunity for a new organization to play a coordinating role between each of these disparate groups. The goal was simple: to bring each stakeholder to the table and in doing so, accelerate the development of charter cities.
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Founded in 2017, the Charter Cities Institute stands the focal point for all parts of the charter cities ecosystem. Our efforts have since expanded to include technical assistance to new city projects to design and implement their governance systems, research on governance and institutions, and our annual Charter Cities Conference.

Our Team
We're a team of academics, economists, entrepreneurs, futurists, humanists, technologists, urbanists, and experimental thinkers - focused on cities.

An Introduction to Charter Cities
What are Charter Cities? Why do they matter? What can we learn from contemporary cities?

What is a Charter City?
A charter city is a city granted a special jurisdiction to create a new governance system. The purpose of the special jurisdiction is simple but powerful; it allows city officials to adopt the best practices in commercial regulation.
As the successes of Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Dubai illustrate, by improving governance, it’s possible for cities to achieve prosperity more quickly than ever before. Inspired by such success, charter cities offer a set of policy reforms for new cities to create the institutions required for sustained economic growth.

Though the scope of reforms to commercial regulation in each new charter city will depend on political context, common features of charter cities include:

Greenfield Site
Building on undeveloped land allows city developers to avoid the political challenges of implementing a new governance system in an existing city
Attracting private investment for the infrastructure build out to limit the financial risk of the host country
Independent Administrative Entity
Public-private partnership between the real estate developer and the host country
Retains a wide range of freedom to improve the business environment
Establishes both a taxing authority and a revenue-sharing agreement with the host country
Authority to establish commercial courts
Potential Areas For Reform Under The Blank Slate In Commercial Regulation
Business registration
Property registration
Education law
Transportation law
Labor law
Energy law
Financial law
Healthcare law
Building codes and construction permits
Governance is a key determinant of a country’s economic trajectory. Unfortunately, politics often prevents needed reforms from being implemented at the national level. Because charter cities cover limited geographic areas, their administrations can pursue deeper reforms than would otherwise be possible.

Why Charter Cities?
We believe that charter cities have the potential to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.
Decades of research have shown that sustained economic growth is the primary determinant of a country’s standard of living. Economic growth, however, requires access to well-functioning institutions. Improving institutions is the most effective way to lift people out of poverty.

Charter cities are a public policy tool to help emerging markets develop the institutions that can serve as the foundation for economic success. They allow countries to experiment with new policies designed to attract business, foster economic growth, create jobs, empower small business, and support historically disadvantaged groups. By fostering an innovation-friendly environment, charter cities enable better institutions and economic growth.

“Charter cities are simultaneously political projects and business proposals.”
Founder and Executive Director Dr. Mark Lutter
‍Singapore, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Dubai, despite pursuing different developmental strategies, all demonstrate that it’s possible for cities to grow from impoverished to world-class cities in two to three generations. The rapid development of these cities has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. It is this stunning success which has inspired the Charter Cities Institute to replicate their development models.

Giving historically legally isolated communities access to better laws is a necessity for long term economic development. Charter cities provide their residents with access to sustainable and efficient legal systems. This makes it easier for them to start businesses, removes barriers to entry, and protects them from corruption and discrimination.