Preferential regimes of established local growth points and its impact on the economy of the Far East

The successful experience of France in implementing the concept of “growth poles” byF. Perroux led to the widespread usage of polarized development ideas in the elaboration of spatial strategies. The Russian Far East (FE) has accumulated considerable, and rather contradictory, experience of creating local growth points. The purpose of the study is to analyze the Far East’s experience of forming local zones with preferential economic regimes, to identify problems of its implementation, and to assess the impact of special local zones’ regimes on the economy of the macro-region. The analysis of the performance of local zones’ functioning was based on the assessment of the degree of achieving targets for creating local “growth points”. The assessment of the impact of local zones on the economy of FE was based on a comparative analysis of enterprises’ demographics, changes in the revenue structure of consolidated budgets of Far Eastern regions, and the quality of regional finances for 2013-2019. The implementation of these approaches showed that the business climate of Far Eastern local zones has a positive nature for its residents, but it has not yet been established; in the absence of a clear position of the state concerning the formation of propulsive industries in most local areas, anchor projects do not have a propulsive nature, and a significant number of small and medium enterprises is loosely connected with enterprises-leaders of zones. Orientation of specialization of Far Eastern local zones toward domestic demand and import substitution, which is objectively formed within the sanctions war, can slow down its export specialization; preferential climate of local zones has no obvious positive impact on the business climate of Far Eastern entities of the Federation, and the growing number of residents with preferential business conditions in local zones dissonant with demographics of FE enterprises. There is a deterioration of the quality of regional finances and the decrease of the taxable mass of profits. It implies the reduction of the number of profitable enterprises in FE as the result of the economic situation deterioration and the introduction of a preferential tax regime in region’s local areas.