Problems and prospects of special economic zones in Russia

Abstract

This article provides an evaluation of the efficiency of special economic zones in Russia for the 10 years since their establishment. An analysis of the possible courses of their development has been given. Approaches to models of SEZ administration and financing have been reconsidered.

Industrial clusters in Russia: The development of special economic zones and industrial parks

“…Moreover, the respondents did not notice much active cooperation among the companies in the zone, and they did not manage to clarify the reasons for this lack of cooperation. According to the literature, the causes can be different, for instance, an inappropriate concept for the economic zone (Farole, 2011;Kirk, 2014;Moberg, 2015;Yankov et al, 2016) or a major restriction of knowledge sharing and collaboration activities among firms due to the Russian mentality (Dickenson and Blundell, 2000;Ivanov, 2016;Kuznetsova and Roud, 2014;Levin and Satarov, 2000;Longenecker and Popovski, 1994;Michailova and Husted, 2003). In general, investors come to clusters due to the basic laws of the market economy, which do not depend on the SEZ or industrial park models.…”

“…They have been created mostly in areas that have not only weak infrastructure and low production capacity but also the potential for economic growth. The Russian government has offered local and foreign investors various greenfield and brownfield projects in these zones, which are supported by incentives such as an established communal infrastructure, simplified "one-window" administrative procedures and low taxes (Maslikhina, 2016;Yankov et al, 2016). The emerging clusters are expected to create large national corporations, thereby reducing import-dependency in strategic areas.…”

“…Current literature regarding the SEZs in Russia is very limited. There are only a few substantial articles, which are either very outdated and cover Kaliningrad FTZ only, or descriptive and didn't provide any specific empirical evaluations with application of the industrial cluster concept (Ablaev, 2015;Burnasov et al, 2013;Dudkina, 2013;Gareev, 2013;Ivanova et al, 2015;Maslikhina, 2016;Prihodko et al, 2007;Romanova and Lavrikova, 2008;Sandler and Kuznetsov, 2015;Yankov et al, 2016). Moreover, Russian case is unique as it suggests cultural aspects in management that differ from Western or Asian approaches: they involve different perceptions of cooperative networks and competitive environment.…”

The effects of culture, attitudes and perceptions on industrial cluster policy: The case of Russia

“…The industrial clusters studied were generally well-provided in terms of Groundings, that is, factor conditions, resources and infrastructure. The SEZs and IPs were established to leverage regional concentrations of resources (Turgel et al, 2019;Yankov et al, 2016 Textile firms were overwhelmingly located in the Ivanovo region. The pharmaceutical sector was mostly located in the Kaluga and Belgorod regions.…”

The success and failure of Russian SEZs: some policy lessons

“…Some experts follow the official methodology in their assessments of Russian SEZ efficiency (e.g. Yankov et al, 2016), which is only a comparison of official statistical aims with the current results of different SEZs. There is also a poorly done short English-language article with good citations from other experts, in which two pages of analysis led to erratic findings (Maslikhina, 2016).…”