Promoting New Growth: ‘Advanced Special Economic Zones’ in the Russian Far East

Abstract

To become a major manufacturing hub for East Asia, the Russian Far East must overcome various socioeconomic challenges, including an imbalanced economic structure, decreasing population, and a poor investment climate. To address these challenges, the Russian authorities in 2014 adopted a new development mechanism, 'advanced special economic zones' (ASEZs). This chapter discusses pros and cons of introducing ASEZs as investment platforms for cultivating export-oriented industry. Much will depend on the domestic and foreign capital inflow over the next years. If the ASEZ policy works out as planned, in the medium and long term there are possibilities for creating a new industrial value chain linking the Russian Far East with Asia-Pacific markets.

Implementation of the territories with special economic regimes in the Far East of Russia

“…The topic of SEZs, which were established from 2005 onwards, is still considered under-investigated due to the challenging process of data collection and general lack of secondary data (Fedorov et al, 2011;Kushnirsky, 1997;Kuznetsov and Kuznetsova, 2019;Yankov et al, 2016;Zhukovskaya et al, 2016). The topic of SEZ implementation in the FER is covered only in Russian academic literature; however, it is very descriptive and lacks critical discussion of the policies themselves (Kashina, 2016;Min and Kang, 2018). Data collection and analysis of this study consisted of two stages.…”

“…The government has started to implement various regional policies striving to stimulate economic development in the FER predominately focusing on establishing different types of territories with special economic regimes. In 2014, President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law "On Territories of Advanced of Social and Economic Development (TASED) in the Russian Federation", which introduced a new type of preferential territories in addition to the existing special economic zones (Kashina, 2016;Min and Kang, 2018). This paper aims to critically analyse the regional policies in the implementation of various types of economic zones in the FER that have been established since 2011.…”

Assessing Contribution Of Largest Investment Projects To The Rf Far East Economy

“…The research work by (Min & Kang, 2018) claims that it is too early to assess AEDA and FPV because they are long-term development projects. The international experience shows that the most successful special economic areas (SEA) in China and Malaysia demonstrated low development indicators during the first years of their operation and began actively attract investment only after 5-10 years of their establishment (Farole, 2011).…”

Development institutions of the Russian Far East and Asia‐Pacific countries: Goals, instruments, and results in comparative perspective

“…These sets of rules, or preferential regimes, constitute the microenvironment of entrepreneurial activity (Aggarwal, 2012, p. 875), form key conditions that directly affect the behavior of residents of preferential territories. The subjective importance of incentives leads to the fact that it is their level that is most often used as the main or even the only ground for cross‐national TDIs comparisons (Mayburov & Sinenko, 2017; Min & Kang, 2018), and also acts as the main explanatory variable in the analysis of their effectiveness.…”

“…22References to institutions of these countries as the examples of best practices and guidelines for TDIs of the RFE regularly appear in the documents of Russian authorities (e.g., State Council of the Russian Federation, 2017; Trutnev, 2014). Japan, China, and Korea since the early 1990s are the leading trade partners of the RFE and are consistently among the ten main sources of FDI entering the macroregion.…”