The role of free zones in rural development, challenges and strategies with emphasis on the role of Anzali free zone

Subject Areas :

Babak Alidoust Masouleh ¹ , Hossein Asghari ² , Seyedeh Sedigheh Hassani Mehr ³ , Alireza Pourshikhian ⁴

1 - PhD in Geography and Rural Planning, Islamic Azad University, Astara Branch, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor of Geography, Islamic Azad University, Astara Branch, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Islamic Azad University, Astara Branch, Iran
4 - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Islamic Azad University, Astara Branch, Iran

Received: 2023-09-11 Accepted : 2023-10-10 Published : 2025-03-15

Keywords: Rural development, free zones, Bandar Anzali, challenges and opportunities,

Abstract :

With the emergence of free zones in the country, national, regional and local (rural) development has occurred and any of their activities will affect urban and rural settlements. Anzali Free Zone, despite very favorable conditions and laws and the creation of capital and asset security, has been one of the areas prone to attracting foreign and domestic investment in recent years, and this has caused socio-cultural, economic and ... changes in rural settlements around this area. The research method is descriptive-analytical, which has been evaluated by distributing a researcher-made questionnaire in the villages surrounding the Anzali Free Zone and conducting a field survey. The analytical results of the data show that the existence of the free and special economic zones of Bandar Anzali has increased land prices, increased income (in the warehousing sector, unloading, etc.). It has also caused reverse migration to some extent and stabilized the population to a very low to low level. Also, the relationship between the amount of exports and investment in development activities (transportation, road development, etc.) and the relationship between the existence of free and special economic zones and increased employment in the region were measured, which had a significant relationship based on Spearman's correlation coefficient at the 95% level. There was a correlation between the improvement of service delivery and the existence of a free and special economic zone in Bandar Anzali County at the 99% level. According to the hypothesis testing and data analysis, although free and special economic zones have played a role in the development of the region, the success achieved in this field is not very significant, as 68.8% of people (rural residents and experts) stated that the role of these zones in the development of the region has been moderate to weak.

References:


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