Any state begins with a common living space, this is ultimately the main reason for the formation of peoples from disparate groups of people. And the first distinguishing feature of an ethnic group is a single economic space. Living in a common territory, people enter into social and economic relations, gradually developing "rules of community". The creation of common rules, the removal of barriers within the association and, conversely, protection from "foreign" participants in economic life are the initial motives for creating a single economic space of the state. The increase in the volume and intensity of international trade, the strengthening of the division of labor and specialization have led to the creation of regional common markets. The formation of a single economic space is taking place in many sub-regions and entire continents, for example, the European Union, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, Asean.
Definition
The single economic space is a territory or several territories where there are rules of economic life identical in form and content. This space has a common currency, common legal norms, a common system of economic relations, a common market with free movement of goods and services, capital and labor resources. In such territories, unified authorities, fiscal authorities and a system of economic security operate. The common space includes both air and sea parts of the territory. The boundaries of the economic space can be formal, for example, administrative, state, and informal - these are zones of influence, service, gravity. Now, the single economic space is more often understood as integration associations that are at various stages of development. And, accordingly, to varying degrees fit this definition. For integration associations, the single economic space is, first of all, the freedom of movement of goods and services, capital and human resources. Further, in the process of development, the remaining signs are achieved.
Target
The creation of a single economic space, which can be formed spontaneously or deliberately, is necessary to ensure comfortable living and economic life, and in the longer term - to intensify ties with the outside world. In more detail, the goals of organizing a single economic space are:
- ensure conditions for efficient and freecommon market for goods and services, capital and labor resources;
- stable development of institutional infrastructure, ensuring economic restructuring;
- pursuing a common fiscal, monetary, industrial, trade and economic policy;
- organization of a unified transport, energy and information system.
What goes into space?
The Common Economic Space is not only the territory of a country (or a group of countries), but also includes its sea area and air area. Territory is a limited part of the Earth's surface, with a certain area, on which objects are located, including settlements, industry, energy, agricultural enterprises and other objects interconnected by transport and engineering infrastructure. It should be noted that the underground part of the territory is being used more and more, for example, the metro, supermarkets, laying communications. The economic marine area of the country includes territorial waters, an exclusive economic zone where the country has the rights to navigation, fishing, and mining. In the air over the territory, economic activities are also carried out, for example, national rights to operate air transport, mobile communications.
Key Features
Countries, organizing their space, can also enter into broader common markets, while the degree of development can be very different. However, some common features of a singleeconomic space:
- unified management institutions and national development goals (strategic goal-setting), a common system of values;
- national system for maintaining the economic integrity, stability and stability of the historical space;
- holistic national reproduction, the country should be able to develop based on its own economic capabilities;
- optimal placement within a single space of productive forces and developed economic ties;
- great mobility and lack of barriers to the movement of resources, financial, labor, commodity;
- the presence of specific economic relations and forms that develop due to the peculiarities of space, including geographical, geopolitical, natural;
- general economic security and interaction with other spaces.
Signs of the national single economic space are formed under the influence of the preconditions:
- objective - such as the existing level of development of productive forces;
- subjective, nationally specific, including natural, geographic, geopolitical.
An important sign of a common space is the existence of the goal of national development. This can be, for example, sovereignty, modernization of the economy, the integrity of the territory.
Factors
The Common Economic Space is a complex multi-level system with manya variety of factors affecting the current state and ability to sustainable development. Basically, there are four groups of space-forming factors:
- spatial, including informational, demographic and institutional, as a system of formal and informal rules and restrictions that determine human economic behavior;
- locations that include natural conditions (geographical location, natural resources, climatic conditions, etc.);
- economic factors (existing production potential, infrastructure, quality of management, entrepreneurial skills), quality and quantity of labor resources, social climate and many others;
- macroeconomic, scientific and technological, investment, innovation and integration;
- preferences, including tax, financial tariff and customs, trade benefits.
National specific factors include both economic and non-economic, including humanitarian, social and cultural, which together sometimes characterize as a single socio-economic space of the state. Some researchers include time as a separate factor.
Processes
Within the framework of a single economic space, multiple socio-economic processes of formation and development take place. Social, because the goal of almost any activity is to satisfy the needs of a person, which forces him to participate in social production. The living conditions of people and relations in society affect the ability to enter into certain economic relations that make it possible to satisfy needs. These interests, in obtaining a part of the public good, are the motive for the activities of people, which proceed in the form of an economic process.
Processes occurring in the single economic space are divided into two main types: natural, which are carried out by man in the process of interaction with nature, and public, arising in society regarding the production and distribution and consumption of products. Both processes are closely related and, in addition, are under regulatory influence. For example, if applied to the economy, then, depending on the type of economy (planned, market, mixed), the social part can be significantly affected, for example, by national traditions, religious practice. All processes are carried out through the interaction of elements of the single economic space, including enterprises, natural resources, institutions, landscape, climatic conditions.
Characteristics of the Russian space
Russia can be considered not only as a country, but also as a large integration project, primarily because of its huge geographical area, which is several times larger than the European Union. The single economic space of Russia is distinguished by the extreme heterogeneity of territories:
- natural and climatic, the country ranges from tundra to subtropics, any kind of landscape, extensivebody of water;
- civilizational, more than 180 nationalities live in the country, representatives of all major religions of the world, who have a variety of value systems and behaviors;
- economic heterogeneity, due to historical, natural and economic reasons, certain parts of the country have a very different level of development, from the post-industrial economies of large cities and the northern outskirts, whose peoples live by hunting, almost in a pre-industrial economy.
- administrative-political, federal state structure, which includes the territories of national and autonomous republics, regions and territories.
Development of the Russian space
Each economic space establishes the rules that determine the existence of the subjects of the country. The Constitution of Russia guarantees the basic freedoms of economic life, including the free flow of financial, human and commodity resources, and the protection of competition. Legislation prohibits the establishment of customs and trade barriers between the territories of the country, the issue of other money. The creation of the Russian single economic space, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was difficult, along with the fact that it was necessary to isolate its economy from other territories of the once common state, a transition was made to the market method of regulation.
Heterogeneity of territories and different national ways of life also hampered the organizational process. Many regions of Russia had closer economic relations with neighboring countries than with the center. In spite ofthere are obvious successes in the formation of a single economic space, there is still a strong unevenness in the development of individual parts of the country, and not all intra-country barriers have been eliminated. In addition, the development of new technologies requires the formation of new common spaces, for example, information ones.
Integration economic spaces
The increasing degree of globalization of the world economy encourages countries to join regional integration groupings to increase the competitiveness of their economies. Naturally, the degree of a country's involvement in the common economic space of association can be different. The sovereignty of the country, national, religious characteristics and obligations, etc. are strong constraints on integration. Integration processes can take a variety of forms, for example, the space of the European Union and the common economic space of Europe do not coincide, since the latter includes four more countries that are not members of EU.
Cooperation is governed by the agreement on the European Economic Area. The presence of such a common market shows the difficulty of creating a common space. Countries like Norway and Iceland are out of the EU only because they don't want to share fishing quotas and finance common agricultural programs, which they simply don't have.
The EU has come closest to the characteristics of a full-fledged common economic space. In addition to the free movement of resources, most countries usesingle currency, the European Parliament is working, other supranational bodies have been created. Countries coordinate macroeconomic, monetary and monetary policies, delegating a significant part of their sovereignty to common governments. After the accession of Eastern European countries to the EU, too much heterogeneity in the level of economies began to strongly affect development. However, the European Union is still the most successful project of the integration common economic space.
Eurasian space
The creation of a single Eurasian economic space is a logical continuation of the reintegration of the territories of the once unified state. The originally created Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2015 became a common market for five post-Soviet countries, including Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The Eurasian Common Economic Space is a space of territories of countries where similar market mechanisms for regulating the economy operate, harmonized legal norms are applied, and a coordinated macroeconomic policy is pursued to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor resources.
A single customs code operates in the common space, many tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade have been removed. At the same time, customs borders have been removed inside the space, but border and migration control has been preserved. Supranational governing bodies have been created, the Eurasian Commission, which regulates and manages some partiesfunctioning of the economy of a single space. The integration process will be long-term, multi-level and multi-speed, due to too much difference between countries in economic development and national traditions.
