Effect of SEZ on attracting FDI to Kazakhstan

Abstract

One of the place-oriented policies is the Special economic zone (SEZ) regime implementation policy, which has become widespread among the countries of the world by now. The main task of the SEZ approach is to create conditions for the development of the country's economy, which can subsequently improve the situation in the labor market, contribute to attracting domestic and foreign investments to the region, in particular foreign direct investment (FDI). On the territory of Kazakhstan, there are 13 SEZs in different regions of the country, each of which has its own focus on the development of certain industries by attracting investment in these areas. Consequently, there is a high research interest in studying the SEZ regime of Kazakhstan as a method of public policy to attract FDI. The main purpose of this work is to determine the potential effectiveness of Kazakhstan SEZs in attracting FDI. The main method for achieving this goal is to construct a hypothesis about the positive impact of the implementation of the SEZ program in the region on the volume of FDI attracted, as well as to test the hypothesis using regression analysis of panel data for 14 regions of the country over a 9-year period. The results of this study revealed the inefficiency of SEZs in terms of the method of attracting FDI.