There are many expected benefits from attracting foreign direct investments: creating opportunities for the receiving country for better integrate in the global market; contribution to regional development by bringing in factors that are necessary to stimulate economic growth; creating new jobs; securing financial resources; they can lead to the transfer of new technologies, the creation of innovations, etc. Due to the expected benefits from the inflow of FDI, countries develop an incentive policy that is most often reflected in fiscal incentives. The aim of paper is to investigate special economic zones as a factor in attracting foreign direct investment. Special economic zones are geographically limited areas within which governments facilitate industrial activity through fiscal and regulatory incentives and infrastructure support. In these zones prevail more favorable, regulatory regimes for investors. The role of this zones is to facilitate economic activity through various types of incentives and infrastructure support. In this paper, special economic zones in China, India, Latvia and Serbia are analyzed and FDI inflows into the zones are presented. Considering the more favorable business conditions, special economic zones can be a generator of FDI attraction.