The concept of special economic zones

Creation and development of special economic zones is an important trend in the development of the national economy. Special economic zones can be intrepreted as the way to integrate Russia into the global economic system in the conditions that allow to compete with foreign countries on domestic and foreign markets.

The formation of the institute of special economic zones can be traced from the medieval trading port city to modern innovation centers. Today, the special economic zones exist in many countries of the world, for the most part they successfully solve the problems of economies in developing countries.

In the educational and scientific literature the concept of the "Free economic zone" has a broader meaning. M.M. Boguslavsky believes that, «Free Economic Zone in the international practice are understood as separate territories of the States in which to address specific economic and other problems. There are special conditions for the activities of foreign and domestic companies». B.M. Smitienko believes that "The free economic zone is understood as a part of the territory of a State with a special, preferential treatment of economic, foreign trade and investment climate». V.E. Ribalkin gives us more expanded definition - «SEZ is a part of the national territory with special preferential trade, customs, investment, currency, financial and tax regimes to encourage foreign economic activity participants and to attract foreign investments and advanced foreign technologies».

Based on the definitions we mentioned above, we can highlight the following - a special economic zone is a part of the country with a special operating mode. This mode adjusts the specific legislation that covers the following topics: customs regulations; taxation; licensing; visa processing; banking; property and mortgage relations; the granting of concessions; free zone management.

Special economic zones are created for the development of manufacturing industries, high-tech industries, tourism, health resort areas, port and transport infrastructure, technology development, and commercialization of their results, production of new products.

The creation of special economic zones is very important for those countries in which there are problems of economic growth, unemployment and inadequate financial resources to productive activities.

The project of creating the SEZ involves a public-private partnership. The following agreement provides joint investment of budget and private funds in the development of a territory: the state is responsible for the construction of infrastructure and private business - for commercial facilities.

The experience of creating SEZ in industrialized and developing countries is fundamentally different. In developing countries, the main functions are to achieve a higher level of industrialization, enabling or improving the country's role in international trade. In developed countries, the establishment of SEZ is mainly used as an instrument of regional policy, SEZ are created in those regions where it’s important to increase the level of economic and social development, respectively.

Due to the fact that a characteristic feature of the development of SEZ in the industrialized countries is an attempt to give an impetus to the economic development of certain areas, their main driving force is not foreign investment, it’s domestic private capital and government subsidies and loans.

In the Russian economic literature we see no unity of the opinion about the role of Russian SEZ that should be regarded as predominant.

Some authors emphasize the aspects of foreign economic activity of the SEZ. They regard them as the most important mechanism for the integration of Russia into the system of world economic relations, in the most effective layers of these relations, namely, the volumes of capital involved in these areas, the number of created innovative industries, jobs with sufficiently high qualification and cooperative interaction with foreign partners. Furthermore, they focus on the economic effects of such regions, such as the expansion and improvement of the export structure in favor of its innovative component and improving the country’s balance of payments.

The positive aspect of the zones is also addressed in the context of the tasks of regional development, raising the economically backward and depressed areas. The most significant effects of zones in this case are the relative alignment of regional and intra-municipal areas in terms of socio-economic development, as well as additional tax revenues in sub-federal budgets.

Other authors consider the positive aspect in the context of the tasks of innovative renewal of our economy. We see that the external economic aspect of the zones is also significant, but it has some other targets, namely - generation of innovation, their progress on the investment market, the exchange of innovations and innovative technologies, access to modern management systems. This interpretation of the role of the SEZ is balancing the external and internal factors of innovation development. Along with the rate of external innovation resources areas have focused on attracting and supporting local innovators, on the alignment of substantially all of the logical chain of the innovation process: from the birth of an innovative idea to its realization in the form of commercially mature investment project.

Innovation in the SEZ is manifested, primarily, in the fact of the establishment of new industrial infrastructure and new production methods especially associated with business forms.

Another innovative feature, inherent in all SEZ - is the ability to enhance the diffusion and dissemination of their borders to other associated economic sphere, industry, territory. This aspect arises from the fact that, despite a certain isolation, special economic zones always remain as integral part of the national economic organism. Therefore, all the consequences of their development have to have an impact on the national economy. Positive diffuse effect of SEZ manifested in the transformation of SEZ and industries, in pulling them to the international level, not only in technical terms, but also in other ways, thereby promoting the internationalization of reproduction processes in other areas of the economy, economic regions and even other countries.

SEZ are able to attract large international companies that use high technologys. It is very important for the development of domestic business, to create a real economic conditions for private investments in commercial structures of the economy. Ultimately, the creation of special economic zones will promote the establishment of new enterprises, the improvement of employment and a high level of wages, an increase in additional tax revenues to the regions and the country, estimated at tens of billions of dollars, to ensure food security both in Russia as a whole, and the individual regions.