Добавил:
Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
С.Д. КОМАРОВСКАЯ world economy.docx
Скачиваний:
47
Добавлен:
17.02.2016
Размер:
836.83 Кб
Скачать

In the middle of the 1990s there were more than 4,000 different feZs worldwide.

What are free economic zones formed for? Why have they become so widespead?

FEZs have a high degree of openness and attractiveness for foreign and domestic investors.

Apart from attracting foreign investments, FEZs allow to solve other problems that are particularly

important for any nation:

encouragement of exports and supply of foreign currency;

increase in employment;

turning backward areas into a test-site of new principles of economic management;

raising the standard of living in depressed areas, etc.

No doubt, FEZs are usually established for certain purposes and socio-economic programs to

be realized.

Figure 21.1 shows the approximate FEZs classification in accordance icerEZ sceonmF with their purposes.

D

Trade

Industrial production:

territorial and

production areas

Technology

introduction Services

t уr ' r ' r

1. Free customs areas

2. Bonded warehouses

3. Free ports

4. Free trade areas

1. Import substitution

2. Export production

3. Industrial parks

4. Research industrial

parks

1. Technopolises

2. Technoparks

3. Development areas

of new and high

technology

1. Offshore

2. Financial centres

3. Banking services

4. Tourist services

5. Ecology parks

Complex (all-round) International

Figure 21.1. Different types of free economic zones

When organizing FE-zones two conceptual approaches are employed: territorial and functional.

Within a territorial FE-zone all enterprises-residents enjoy privileges. In the latter case these

privileges are preferential conditions for a specific type of business activities, no matter where the

firm is based in the country or not (offshore firms, duty-free shops at the international airports,

maritime (sea) ports).

One of the simpliest forms of free economic zones is an unbonded area (duty-free). They came

Into being as far back as the 17th century. These are transit, or consignment warehouses for export

commodities.

Free trade zones (FTZs) have become widespread recently. Within these zones all kinds of

commercial expenses have been reduced to a minimum. By the middle of 1990s only in the US

there were about five hundred FTZs. As a result of the evolution of FTZs, there came into being

Industrial and production zones (lPZs), or enterprise zones (uk). By the enterprise zone the Brit-

307

20*

Ish mean a designated zone in a depressed, generally inner-urban area, in which firms located in

the zone are given favourable taxation concessions and freedom from a number of planning constrains.

Eleven zones (with a maximum size of about 200 hectares) were adopted when such zones

were introduced in Great Britain in 1981. Firms were granted a ten-year exemption from rates and

a 100 per cent taxation allowance on new building. The UK government announced in 1989 that

no further enterprise zones would be created, by which time twenty-seven had been established.

An intensive inflow of capital with stimulating production activity started in these zones. The structure

of Shannon, the Irish airport, is a typical industrial and production zone.

Technnology introduction zones came into being in the 1970s and 1980s as a means of supporting

the research and development centres. Such technopolises operate in the US, Japan, China.

They are called technoparks in the US, technopolises in Japan, areas of development of new and

high technologies in China. The organization called the Moscow Science and Technical Complex

founded by professor of eye microsurgery S. Fyodorov was such a technopark in Russia. The famous

Silicon Valley technopark (the US) where 20,000 people are employed gives 20 per cent of

the world production of computer technology.

Service zones are also widespread in the world. We refer to them offshore zones (OZs) and tax

havens (THs). OZs and THs attract businesses by a favourable financial and economic climate, a

low cost of insurance services, moderate taxes, etc.

At present there are more than 300 offshore centres worldwide, including 70 tax havens. OZs

and THs are set up usually in small countries and territories, e.g., Liechtenstein, Panama, Man