African City States?

CNet reports on the vision of Paul Romer:

Using Western know-how and bureaucracies, he wants to build modern metropolises in one of the most challenging areas of the world: Africa...The idea is to create city-states along the coast of Africa that can become economic hubs (or maybe more realistically- clusters) for the region and at the same time be insulated from the continent's notorious corruption and political chaos. In a sense, it's what the British did with Hong Kong in the 19th century when China was relatively unstable.

What does one make of this? Is it wishful thinking and or well meaning paternalism? Successful city-states have largely been self-organized and self-governed, spawning them in a hierarchical top-down manner remains to be seen.