Special economic zones (SEZs) and gated communities both constitute 'spaces of exception', but have rarely been analysed together. The paper derives some implications by identifying a gap in the incorporation of social welfare planning in urban development. Private, non-state actors are engaged as the main instrument to link up to the global economy while local governments act as the 'enablers' providing the ideal environment for these private firms to operate in. It finds that in such emerging global cities, the national government has shown greater efficiency in the design and implementation of a global city vision. This paper examines an emerging urban megaproject in a developing country, The Entertainment City, to explicate the roles actors play in global city formation. But global city formation can be seen as a product of a private-public partnership, whereby various state and non-state actors play a role in the ability of the city to claim global city-hood. The process of global city formation remains poorly understood and existing literature points to either the transnational economic class or the bureaucratic-political elites as the lead actor in the integration of these cities to the global economy.
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