compared with other areas, these areas have higher unemployment rates, lower income level, lower employment opportunities, vacant land, and decayed building and infrastructures. Enterprise zone programs provide the incentives to businesses to overcome economic obstacles that hinder economic growth. United States The United States experienced a transition similar to the UK in the 1970s. The industrial regions of New England, the northern Midwest and Mid-Atlantic were facing economic restructuring, overseas competition and profit loss. During the 1970s, it is estimated that 38 million jobs were lost due to the relocations of industries, closure, and cutbacks, and as much as 35 million were located in the industrial regions. For the regeneration, it took urban planners, politicians and economists to challenge Keynesianism and introduce Enterprise zones. Urban revitalisation heavily influenced enterprise zones in the USA. Urban revitalisation consisted of innovative partnerships between different government levels and the private sector. The concept mainly consisted of accepting the end of the industrial-led economy and transforming the role of the inner city to a service sector economy. This revitalisation of the inner city would attract young professionals to the decaying Victorian downtown neighborhoods. This would create a new economic base to the city. In New Jersey, for example, a municipality may request that the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority, part of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs designate part of a city, usually about 30%, as a UEZ. UEZs are usually located in the industrial and/or commercial portions of a city, within a continuous boundary. A 50% reduction in the general Sales tax rate (from 6.625% to 3.3125% as of January 1, 2018) and hiring incentives, are designed to reinvigorate the business climate within the Zone. These incentives have led to the construction of numerous malls and big-box retailers in parts of the development zone located near major highways, such as the Elizabeth Center and Jersey Gardens Outlet Center in the largely industrial city of Elizabeth along the New Jersey Turnpike. Among New Jersey's 565 municipalities, 27 now participate in the program. Critical assessment Asia The general critique of enterprise zones is whether the system of tax breaks and easing of planning regulations (as has occurred in Asia, notably in free trade zones of Singapore and Hong Kong where Peter Hall sought inspiration in the 1970s) can transition successfully into sustainable economic growth as the zone is wound down, or whether by special