A Zone for Employment and Economic Development (Spanish: Zonas de empleo y desarrollo económico, or ZEDE, colloquially called a model city) is a type of administrative division in Honduras that provides a high level of autonomy, with its own civil code, while still subject to the criminal code of the Honduras government.
ZEDEs originated in the government of Porfirio Lobo Sosa; the first draft of the law was in 2011, but the necessary legislation was not passed until 2013.
[6] However, ZEDEs were created within a framework of 50 year sunset clauses and internationally binding agreements, to make them functionally unrepealable.
In September 2024, the Honduran Supreme Court declared zones for employment and economic development unconstitutional.
[12] They found that a ZEDE which resembles the growth rates of China's Special Economic Zones would reach $36,000 GDP per capita by 2050.