“Today
& Tomorrow.Azerbaijan in Focus”.-2008.-¹ 3(10) March.-P.63-66
Organization
of free economic zones in
Chingiz Ismaylov
Chairman of the Center for Regional Economic
Development in
At present more than 4 thousand free
economic zones are operational in 120 countries of the world. More than 5
million people are involved in work and more than 500 billion dollars have been
invested in these zones.
Last years there is a striking interest to the creation of Free Economic
Zones (FEZONES) in
The formation of market relations
and the growth of possibilities of allocation of foreign investments naturally
have raised importance of FEZONES creation. However, for a while there can’t be
any talk about a considered and consistently implemented regional development
policy concerning this problem in our republic. As an example, it is worth
noting that only during the last two months the leadership of the Ministry of
Economic Development made different contradictory statements on the problem
related to FEZONES (Selection of different places for FEZONES, interruption of
discussions of the problem in general). To our mind, one of the reasons of the
current situation is that there are no considerations about the concept of FEZONES
in the republic. First of all, the purpose of creating every FEZONE must be
defined in the concept to be worked up.
As it is known, the main purpose in
creation of FEZONES is attraction of investments, new jobs, development of the
advantages giving by the geographic location and transportation potential,
stimulating progress of far-located and backward regions. Every FEZONE,
separately, has some unique, transport-geographic, economic potential and
specialized human resources. The state, naturally, must set different purposes
in their creation. It is clear that taking into account the international
experience will make it possible to create a possibility for more successful
achievements of the set goal.
Experience of foreign countries
The World Free Trade Economic
Association created by the UNO in 1978, acquaints every year at its annual
assembly interested parties with positive experience of FEZONES active in
different countries. The different level of development, economic and financial
conditions of countries demand different goals in creation of FEZONES. In most
cases, the main goal in creation of FEZONES in the developed countries is to
remove inequality in the regional development of the countries, while in the
developing countries it is mainly the attraction of foreign investments in the
country.
In order to benefit from the foreign
experience, the countries with social-economic situation and geographical
position similar to our country must be taken as cases. Unfortunately, the
experience of the
In our opinion, learning the
unsuccessful experience of the proposal on the creation of FEZONES in the
countries of Maghreb (covering the
The experience of many countries (
In the creation of FEZONES in
borderline regions attention should be paid to the neighboring countries’
policy in this field. For instance,
The State Duma
rejected the proposal made already in 1996 related to the establishment of
FEZONE in
In Turkey FEZONES were arranged in the western
part being the country’s coast. Such step while stimulating the development of
these regions, from the point of view of the country’s social-economic
development in whole has caused differences between western and eastern
regions.
The FEZONES being created on the
Caspian costal territories (Laqan
The world experience related to
FEZONES show that implementation of the policy targeted at creation and gradual
development of such zones will determine efficiency of their activities. At the same time in case of the absence of
the state support FEZONES cannot develop by themselves. Namely because the
comprehensively considered policy pursued by countries in this sphere will
enable the achievement of the set goals.
The creation and successful
activities of FEZONES depend on the following factors:
- Advantageous geographical location for the efficiency of foreign
economic relations;
- Existence of a regional export
potential;
- Natural resources potential;
- Development level of
transportation net;
-Working experience in accordance with the
international level;
- Acceptable basis of human
resources, especially availability of specialized professionals
- Suitable social, economic, and
geo-political situation in the region.
The present situation related to the creation of FEZONES in
Depending on choosing of the place separated
for FEZONES the continuous duration of the given tax privileges must be
clarified. In most cases this duration hovered between 10-20 years.
The creation of FEZONES In
Azerbaijan can basically become one of the means to remove misbalance in the
social-economic development from the point of view of the country’s territory.
In this connection, the most important problem is a reasonable choice of the
territories. From the scientific view, a correct choice of the place creates
the base of the future success. Otherwise, the idea on the creation of FEZONES
can fail (as an example, we can show the
It
is necessary to take into consideration that the dependence on the central
governmental structures, lessens from the management point and possibilities of
economic independence in FEZONES. Consequently, on the territories with
probability of creation of separatism the organization of such zones and to
what dangers they might lead must be taken into consideration.
In the Azerbaijani condition choice of the
place that will be allotted for FEZONES must be analyzed on several levels.
The
first level – selection of the place must come forth from the country’s
regional development strategy. Unfortunately, until now there can be no talk
about a comprehensively considered regional development policy. The very
superficially composed “State Program on Development of Regions” has not so far
created a possibility in satisfactorily big volume of available human resources
of the regions. For this reason, in the regions the social-economic development
has not reached the desired level. If in the districts taken separately putting
any enterprise to work and or the hand over of a social object create a
seemingly revived picture, its important problems are still waiting for their
solution.
It
is clear that the regional development policy of our country must be formed in
accordance with the situation and change of our relations with the
neighbor-countries. On account of this, must be analyzed on the basis of
“self-gravitating” features of the border districts - on the second level.
The
third level – advantageous possibilities for placing FEZONE of the region
(natural-climatic conditions, the geographical position, resources potential,
the developed transport infrastructure, human resources, the material-technical
base, etc.). For example, choosing
Thus, two basic factors must be taken into
consideration in advantageous choosing for FEZONE:
1) Conformity with the regional
development strategy of the country
2) Probability of foreign investors’
interest to this territory
Taking into consideration the above
said, technical-economic proof of the creation of the FEZONE must be carried
out. The technical-economic substantiation that will be composed, must consist
of the following divisions:
- The basic purpose of the creation of the
FEZONE;
- Estimation of the basic factors for creation
of the FEZONE;
- Estimation of the chosen territory for establishment of the FEZONE
(what is the reason for choosing namely this territory);
- Development program of the FEZONE;
- Financial infrastructure and technical possibilities;
- Activities targeted at arrangement of management system on the
territory;
- Estimation and prospective development of the FEZONE activities.
In conformity with the world
practice FEZONES are divided into different types. The more spread FEZONE types
are the following:
-
Special economic zones;
-
Special trade zones;
-
Industrial zones;
-
Recreation-tourism zones;
- Information technologies parks;
- Finance-banking zones.
In other mentioned fields the selection of territories into specialized
FEZONES is made in accordance with different requirements. Therefore the
specialization of FRZONE that will be created in our republic must be
determined from now. The importance of this problem for FRZONE comes forth from
the Law.
The Law on FEZONE must clarify legal
and economic bases of its creation and activities. At the same time it is worth
getting acquainted with achievements made in this field by the neighbor
countries in adopting the Law on FEZONES. For example, the Law on FEZONES was
adopted in
Proposals on the creation of FEZONES
Consideration of probability of any
risks in connection with the activities of FEZONES is demanded in the regional
development strategy of the country. The feasible risks are as following:
−
Formal registration of monopolistic enterprises in FEZONE in order to escape
taxes;
−
Decreasing budget incomes that will be gained as a result of economic-trade
relations;
−
Deepening of inequality created in the development of regions (if FEZONE has
been created in the east of the republic) ;
−
Growth of the territory’s possibilities in becoming economically independent
decrease dependence from the center and can initiate rise of separatist moods;
−
Failure of the project as a result of incompetence of the local authorities.
With the purpose of lessening the
probability of rising of these or other risks the state must work out a
relevant regulating mechanism.
Taking
into consideration the above-mentioned, we think that the following territories
can be considered priority as an initial variant in the problem of the creation
of FEZONE on the republican territory:
1)
„A special trade zone“ in the border region known by the name „Gyrmyzy Korpu“ (
2)
“A special trade zone“ in the border
3)
“A special tourism zone“ on Narguin and Pirallahy islands.
The
consideration of establishment of FEZONES on these territories can be
expedient. The chosen special economic zones must not be territorially compact
and very large from the management point of view. Only in this case, on the
indicated territories development will take place, the economic relations of
the country will extend, and at the same time the significance of