Are special economic zones a breakthrough for Russia?

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a part of territory of the Russian Federation determining by the Government of the RF, where a special "privileged" mode of doing business exists and customs procedure of free customs zone may operates. As a rule, the validity of such zones is several decades and that is quite logical - high-tech innovations and new growth models are not created from scratch, it takes a long time and investor confidence in the return of their investments. There are also zero interest rates to investors on key taxes. Additionally, there are tax breaks for government bodies aimed to the development of SEZ infrastructure.

On the territory of the Russian Federation special economic zone of the following types can be created: industrial and manufacturing, technology development, tourist and recreational, port.

Funding of the creation of engineering, transport, social, innovation and other infrastructure of the special economic zone effects at the expense of the federal budget and the budgets of other levels.

Industrial and manufacturing zones are a vast territory, located in the major industrial regions of the country. The proximity to the resource base for production, access to finished infrastructure and main roads, create favorable conditions for doing business, creating new high-tech fields and industries. Today there are six industrial and manufacturing zones: "Alabuga" (Republic of Tatarstan), "Lipetsk", "Togliatti", "Titanium Valley" (Sverdlovsk region), "Moglino" (Pskov region), "Ljudinovo" (Kaluga region).

Technology development zones are located in the largest research and education centers with a rich academic tradition and recognized research schools. They offer great opportunities for innovative business development, hi-tech production and its output to the Russian and international markets. Today there are five technology development zones: "Dubna" (Moscow Region), "St. Petersburg", "Zelenograd» (Moscow), "Tomsk", "Innopolis" (Republic of Tatarstan).

Tourist and recreational zones are located in the most scenic and popular tourist regions of Russia. Special economic zone of tourist-type offer favorable conditions for the organization of tourism, sports, recreational and other types of businesses. Today there are four special economic zone of this type in Russia: "Altai Valley" (Altai region), "Baikal harbor" (Republic of Buryatia), "Gate of Baikal" (Irkutsk region), "Biryuzovaya Katun" (Buryatia).

Port zones are located in close proximity to major transportation routes, logistics SEZ can be a platform for the organization of the shipbuilding and ship repair activities, provision of logistics services, as well as a base for new routes. Currently there are two port SEZ: "Ulyanovsk", "Sovetskaya Gavan" (Khabarovsk Territory).

Thus it can be concluded that there are quite a great number of sites in Russia with preferential tax and customs regime, the infrastructure created by the state. However, it will take a large time period to SEZ to give our country new breakthrough technologies require, the stability of the legal framework and investor confidence that in spite of the preferential tax treatment and other incentives, their investment will bring them the planned return in the form of profits and participation in the management of generated business.