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The term "free zone" refers to designated areas in which companies are taxed very lightly and it enhances global market presence by attracting new business and foreign investments. For over a century, governments around the world have sought to boost and exploit the economic power of their particular regions and zones by designating them as "special" or "free" economic zones. The trend of establishing such zones or areas have gained momentum in the last four or five decades with countries accounting for small businesses and millions of direct or indirect jobs. The Middle East, especially the countries in the Persian Gulf, for some and other reasons, have particularly embarked on such a trend. The current paper tries to highlight benefits and challenges faced by free trade zones in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, taking into account recent global financial crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free zones; it has positive effects in terms of foreign direct investment, technology transfer, employment creation, and its contribution to foreign trade volume. However, because of the companies in free zones have a privileged place compared to companies outside the free zone, there are also opinions that free zones cause unfair competition. In this study, it is aimed to examine the importance of free zones operating in Turkey in terms of foreign trade and employment during the COVID-19 period. For this purpose, first of all, the foreign trade share of the eighteen free zones in Turkey and the employment they provide were evaluated comparatively. During the pandemic period, the contribution of free zones to foreign trade did not decrease; on the contrary, it increased. The foreign trade volume of the free zones has increased by 12.22% in 2020 compared to the pre-epidemic period. Simultaneously, the effect of free zones on employment has increased by 7.19% compared to pre-epidemic period. As a result of the econometric analyzes, it was confirmed that the increase in the foreign trade volume of free zones positively affected the employment of free zones despite the negative effects of the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, countries are seeking in various ways to achieve their development orientations and to address the growing urban problems in regions, especially in The developing regions and countries of the world, however, lack the economic capabilities and financing that would enable them to implement their development plans and strategies. Therefore, Attention focused on the important of attracting foreign and local investments to participate in the development process and investing that money in particular to develop production fields and industry to improve the level of exports and raise the level of the national economy. Free zones, in their various forms, constitute one of the most important and capable areas In the process of attracting investment and settling foreign capital in the local environment through the incentives it offers to investors. So the focus will be on research On the possibility of establishing a free zone based on the partnership system with the investor in the district of Hamdaniya, Nineveh governorate, and focusing on the type of free zone Specific to the agricultural industry and what it can achieve from the region in terms of returns and advantages, and to clarify the obstacles it faces, with reference to some experiences Countries in the regional region with regard to the experience of establishing special free zones. The research reached to clarify the most important requirements necessary for the establishment of the region The percentage of what is achieved in the specified location and the results that can be obtained from the establishment of this zone, whether it is for the state or the investor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploiting China's pilot free trade zones (FTZs) as an exogenous shock of institutional quality improvement, this study explores the impact of FTZs on urban entrepreneurship. We find that cities with FTZs are associated with higher entrepreneurship. The positive influence of FTZs is more pronounced in western and northern cities, and cities with high administrative levels. The entrepreneurship in service industries is promoted significantly by FTZs. In addition, FTZs foster entrepreneurship by promoting opening-up upgradation of foreign investment and foreign trade and financial development. We also identify the spatial spillover effects and find that entrepreneurship responses to pilot FTZs are significantly stimulated in adjacent cities without FTZs. Last, we show that Shanghai FTZ and Fujian FTZ, rather than Tianjin FTZ and Guangdong FTZ, play a non-negligible function in encouraging new firm creation. This study has important implications for FTZ's planning and spurring economic growth in developing countries. • Pilot Free Trade Zones have a significant positive impact on China's urban entrepreneurship. • The effect of Free Trade Zones on entrepreneurship varies across different cities, industries and Free Trade Zones. • Free Trade Zones improve entrepreneurship through promoting opening-up upgradation and financial development. • There is a positive spatial spillover effect of Free Trade Zones on entrepreneurship in neighboring non-pilot cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that technology transfer is essential for innovation and knowledge diffusion. However, without appropriate policies, technology transfer cannot be successful. This research studied technology transfer and its policies in Korea with the aim to determine whether it contributed to the catching-up of the Korean economy while seeking to prove Schumpeter's theory of innovation. In this study, a mixed methodology that involved the use of a systematic review of literature and an analysis of secondary data was employed. The results show that technology transfer policies are essential to economic growth and income generation of the National Innovation System (NIS) while fostering innovation. In line with this, three key policies were discovered that helped the Korean NIS make an economic catch-up from a developing country to a developed country. These are: Intellectual Property Rights, Foreign Direct Investment, and a third class (which was referred to as the general technology transfer policy) of technology transfer policies. These policies improve technology transfers by establishing free trade zones, giving tax breaks to foreign firms and easing the process of foreign direct investment. Based on these results, a policy structure was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several business related topics such as foreign investment. Topics discussed include market-oriented business environment that is in pilot free trade zone, foreign investors who are investing out of Pilot Free Trade Zone, and foreign-invested enterprises and how they are related to Investment Implementation.

The establishment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone immediately hit international and domestic headlines. On face value, the free trade zone is a variation to the long-established special economic zones set up by the Chinese government more than three decades ago in order to attract foreign direct investment and promote economic development in China. In substance, the free trade zone is used by China's new leadership as a more ambitious testing ground for more liberal economic reforms, especially in the financial industry. This article looks not only into these deepening economic reforms but also into the inherent political difficulties and significance of implementing these plans from a law and development perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Export processing zones (EPZs) are statutorily created investment parks that developing countries establish to attract foreign investment in exchange for government-granted fiscal incentives. At their core, EPZs are a quid pro quo between host governments and investor companies: in exchange for the promise of job creation, technological transfer, economic development, and compliance with export performance requirements, investor companies receive substantial fiscal incentives, such as tax and tariff exemptions. Most EPZ statutes are inconsistent with Article 3.1(a) of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) because EPZ incentives qualify as prohibited export subsidies. Fortunately, many developing countries have received exemptions from this prohibition to maintain their EPZ systems. The exemptions, however, are set to permanently expire for many countries on December 31, 2015, spurring the need for EPZ reform. This Note proposes a framework for achieving WTO-compliance for EPZ statutes by conditioning EPZ incentives on an investor company's implementation of standards of corporate social responsibility. This proposal will permit developing countries to maintain fiscal incentives--thus helping preserve their economic competitiveness as attractive destinations for foreign investment--while also offsetting potential harm that the mandatory elimination of EPZ export requirements may cause to developing-country industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article. The purpose of article is the analysis history of free economic zones development and features of their activity. The results of the analysis. Through free economic zones in regions and countries get foreign investments, technologies, experience of management. The free economic zone is the tool for achievement of definite economic and public aims. Free economic zones perform a number of the microeconomic and macroeconomic goals. Ultimate goal of free economic zones is regional integration of economy. Distribution of free economic zones led to expansion and deepening of communications between separate national free economic zones and world economy. On the contrary, integration of world economy also has considerable impact on development of classical free economic zones. The fourth industrial revolution promoted further development of free economic zones on a global scale, including scientific and technical and innovative border free economic zones. The border free economic zones are beyond the state borders and represent temporary, transitional type of free economic zone from classical free economic zone to regional integration of the economy which cover border territories of different countries. The border economic zone means that two states or two provinces choose the special border territory within which mechanisms of organization and coordination within administrative structure of high level are acting and where self-government institutions and the enterprises bear responsibility for implementation of economic cooperation and growth. The zone is based on market economy, and within a zone is carried out a favorable mode of economic policy. Border economic zones have various names, such as, for example, an economic zone of the small region, border zones of economic cooperation, a triangle of growth and a border zone of development without borders. In interests of implementation of definite purposes, in certain regions free economic zones are created. They provide the stable, favorable environment for investment, possess well developed infrastructure and have a preferential mode of activity. Well functioning free economic zone is managed by responsible authority, which is efficient and flexible. Its tasks include planning, administration, coordinating and development of economic and public work within a zone in close cooperation with the authorities of this country. The industrial structure of free economic zone consists of the factors of key importance defining development of free economic zone. Its development is carried out both for all free economic zones as a whole, and for each separate free economic zone. Considering free economic zones from geographical position, it is possible to say that they are less limited: they can settle down in ports, coastal regions, in one country or in border territories where there are favorable communication data. Conclusions and directions of further researches. After passing the mentioned typological transformation purpose of free economic zones from the category of microeconomics to the macroeconomic category, and at the same time free economic zone began to receive more and more privileges and assistance. Summing up, it is possible to say that development of free economic zones can be divided into five periods of growth and six stages of development. Growth periods in each country differ on duration, depending on as analyzed country is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free zone is one of the country's strategies to get a bigger share from world trade. Free zones not only expedite the entrance of advanced technology by attracting the foreign investors to the country, but also make the exporters of the country become competitive in the world market by providing convenience in terms of cheap raw materials and tax. This study aims to make a research on the relation among the comprehensive field research made on free zones, strategic orientations, and firm performance. Market, technology, and entrepreneurship orientations had been handled in this study. Firm performance, on the other hand, had been handled in terms of financial and nonfinancial performance. Sampling method, which is not based on a specific calculus of probabilities, had been used in convenience and the data had been collected by survey method. The data obtained from survey evaluated by making "Correlation Analysis" and "Hierarchical Regression Analysis" by means of SPSS 18.0 software. As a result of analysis, it is reached that strategic orientation show different impact on the firm performance. The study ends with the interpretation and evaluation of the indications both in theoretical terms and in administrative terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1980s, Iran has pursued a policy of attracting foreign investment and fostering regional trade by granting favored status to the so-called “Free Trade-Industrial Zones” (FTZs) and “Special Economic Zones” (SEZs). To date six FTZs and sixteen SEZs have been set up throughout Iran. The FTZs are strategically positioned for their potential international links and have their eyes on markets beyond Iran, and the SEZs for their value in serving main industries and for improving the country's distribution system and supply network. This paper examines the experience of these zones in Iran in the context of Iran's contradictory and ambivalent approach to international economic integration in general. It is shown that liberal policies pursued in the free zones have been in marked contrast to the approach in the mainland, which has been generally inward-looking in much of the post-revolutionary period. We examine first the rise of free zones as a global phenomenon followed by an overview of Iran's zones and their characteristics. It is argued that serving mainly as “back doors” to the international economy, Iran's free zones have stalled mainly because their promotion has been decoupled from, if not at odds with, official attitudes to the international economy at large. As a result, the zones' ability to attract investment has been limited by both adverse external perceptions of Iran as an investment destination and internal complexities discouraging such investment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Worldwide, as well as in Croatia, free zones (FZs) are recognized as an important instrument of economic growth acceleration due to the positive infl uence they may have on the foreign direct investments attraction, exports boosting, regional competitiveness advancement, and creation of job opportunities. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate benefi ts and contribution of FZs to Croatian economic growth dynamizing. Benefi ts are here presented in terms of attracted foreign direct investments, in addition to the number and type of newly opened jobs. Th e qualitative analysis of the data showed that Croatian FZs attracted mainly industries in low-tech, lowskill, and footloose activities, and that they failed to be an attractor for greenfi eld investments. Furthermore, the number of newly opened jobs is insuffi cient for aff ecting unemployment signifi cantly, and for inversion of the negative economic trends into positive ones. Success of FZs is dependent on the quality of the local business setting and leader team, the chosen FZ management model, as well as on the quality of the macroeconomic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the location choice of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey over the period 1996-2003. Using FDI data at the provincial level and negative binomial model, the empirical evidence confirms that agglomeration economies and information costs are the most important determinants of FDI location in Turkey. Specifically, both foreign and domestic agglomerations and in particular urbanization economies strongly affect the location decision of foreign investors. The results also suggest that foreign investors are attracted to provinces with fast growing market, more educated labour force, high density of road network, greater public investment, milder climate, larger area and better quality of life. On the other hand, the empirical findings show that wage, productivity, labour availability, unionization, sea and air transportation, free zones and instability have no significant impacts on the location decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The People's Republic of China's revised rules governing foreign acquisitions of domestic enterprises, promulgated in the fall of 2006, disappointed many observers who had hoped for a more open and transparent approach to Chinese foreign investment. On closer inspection, however, the United States' own laws and policies restricting foreign acquisition of domestic enterprises influenced the Chinese rules' protectionism. The costs of U.S. trade policy have extended beyond Chinese law. Both the U.S. and Chinese rules limiting foreign investment likely violate each country's respective GATS commitments. These violations bring consequences beyond the borders of these two nations, undermining free trade in the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]