Content, Evaluation Criteria and Factors Affecting the Development of Border Gate Economic Zones

Fifth, developing economic zones ensures strengthening national defense, maintaining security and social stability in national border areas.

Developing border economic zones and promoting economic exchanges at border gates not only increases the economic potential of the border area but also makes people in border areas aware of the need to maintain a peaceful and cooperative environment for long-term business. This further encourages people to be closely attached to the border area and be ready to protect the border when necessary. In addition, economic exchanges through border gates also require redistribution of population and labor in the area, creating close coordination between forces and people in the area. This is an important factor and has great significance for economic exchanges through border gates in the task of maintaining security - defense and protecting the borders of the Fatherland.

Developing economic exchanges through cross-border trade activities will increase mutual understanding of culture, thereby improving border security. On the basis of expanding economic activities, promoting comprehensive strength to create a strong position in national defense and security.

Economic development in border areas is to create a physical foundation, attract talents and material resources from the people, and contribute to maintaining border sovereignty. This is also the policy of the Party and Government on economic development in border areas; speeding up the integration process of border provinces, implementing the Strategy and planning for economic development in border areas in association with preserving the long-standing traditional friendship and cooperation between our country and neighboring countries.

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1.2. CONTENT, ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND FACTORS AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF BORDER GATE ECONOMIC ZONES

1.2.1. Contents of border gate economic zone development

From the concepts analyzed above, the development of border economic zones includes the following main contents:

1.2.1.1. Development of economic and residential territorial space in border gate economic zones

Organizing the economic territorial space of border economic zones is to determine the geographical boundaries of the economic zones to conduct economic activities. In this determination, it is necessary to pay attention to the following issues:

Firstly, the sovereignty of the countries over the territory must be respected. The economic zones have the common administrative characteristics of being the place where two or more countries meet; have their own geographical location on land, sea and continental shelf, rivers and lakes, etc., which are included in the border division documents according to the Agreement and are allowed by the State to impose a number of separate policies. The general principle of the territorial space model is that the economic zone must respect the sovereignty of the territory, territorial waters, continental shelf, airspace, according to the signed agreement and international conventions. Activities in the area must take into account geographical and natural factors so as not to harm the interests of the parties in all aspects, paying attention to the environmental field. Ensure the best coordination of natural factors for mutual benefit. When establishing the economic zone, there must be specific discussions when implementing activities in the area to create cooperation of the parties' resources; seek locations that create the ability for symmetrical development (similar factors); Seek and aim for locations where there are good domestic connections to compensate for shortages in human resources and goods exchange; avoid disadvantageous locations, locations where criminals operate or where disputes and encroachments may occur.

In the trend of cooperation and integration, countries can find suitable economic zones to create internationalization processes, expand regional competition, create leading models, or growth paths for the economy and domestic production output.

Second, it is necessary to determine the types of economic activities in the economic zones . As mentioned, in the border economic zones, it is necessary to determine the appropriate ratio and relationship of development between sectors and fields. With its inherent properties, the core activity of the economic zones is economic exchange and trade exchange. However, in the long term, economic development in the economic zones does not stop there. Once the level of production development is higher, economic activities in the economic zones will be expanded to the fields of production and processing. Therefore, the development of economic territorial space in the border economic zones needs to pay attention to the prospects of future economic sector development, demonstrating a reasonable economic structure, bringing optimal efficiency to activities in the economic zones.

Third, in the organization of economic territorial space in the EZs, it is necessary to pay attention to types of commercial and tourism services . This is not only a place where goods are bought and sold, serving shopping needs, but also a place for trade promotion such as fairs, exhibitions, displays, product introductions and advertisements; organizing meetings, exchanges, learning, signing contracts between economic organizations, businesses between countries; sightseeing, tourism... The level of development of the EZs is first of all reflected in the level of development, the level of prosperity of types of commercial and tourism services in the EZs.

Fourth, population development in the economic zones. Territorial organization is understood as the entire process or action of humans to distribute production and service facilities, distribute population, and use natural resources, taking into account their relationships and interdependence. Therefore, in the development of economic zones, attention must be paid to population development. Basically, population development in economic zones must ensure harmony between population distribution, distribution of productive forces, and ecological environment.

Based on the nature of the economic zone, the core activity of the economic zone is commercial exchange, so the proportion of non-agricultural population must account for a large proportion of the population structure and labor structure of the economic zone. The characteristics of the population in the economic zone, therefore, have the characteristics of urban population. And this is also the objective basis for the development of the economic zone into border cities.

In turn, to develop urban population in the border economic zone, it is necessary to pay attention to key issues such as land fund for housing construction; construction of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure, production and life service system in the border economic zone; at the same time, pay attention to the requirements of urban social management in the border economic zone.

1.2.1.2. Developing economic exchanges through border gates

First, the characteristics of economic exchange through border gates

At the national level, economic theory has shown that “Economic development is considered as a process of both quantitative and qualitative changes in the economy”. The quantitative aspect of development implies an increase in the scale of income and potential of the economy; while qualitative change includes the process of changing the internal structure of the economy, “economic restructuring and social progress”[49]. Thus, the essence of economic development is to link economic growth with changes in economic structure, social life, political institutions, and legal culture. The key factor of economic development is that the people of that country must be the main members of the process of structural change... they participate in enjoying the benefits of development as well as creating those benefits.

Economic development in border economic zones is a new concept of economic development aimed at exploiting the potentials and resources of the economic and political geographical location of the border strip, with the focus being on forming a focal area for trade exchange at the land border gate with a legal basis, infrastructure system and appropriate development policies.

to create new momentum for economic, trade and investment cooperation between the host country and neighboring countries and thereby with other countries in the region in the trend of regional and international integration [6].

Thus, economic development in the economic zones is the development of commercial activities associated with border gates. To clarify the characteristics of economic development in the economic zones, we consider the following issues:

1) Economic development in economic zones is closely linked to commercial activities . According to the Law on Commerce, “commercial activities are activities aimed at generating profits, including buying and selling goods, providing services, investing, promoting trade and other activities aimed at generating profits” [61].

From that, it can be said that economic development in the EZs is the development of activities of buying and selling goods, providing services, investing, promoting trade, immigration and other profit-making activities. This is different from economic development on a national scale, because economic development on a national scale is the process of economic growth associated with ensuring social equality and protecting environmental resources; while economic development in the EZs is to promote the growth of commercial activities.

2) Economic development in the economic zones is closely linked to border gates. As mentioned above, border gates are places where people, means of transport, and goods enter and exit across land borders. Economic development in the economic zones is based on border gates to build economic zones and expand production and business activities. Therefore, only places with border gates can have economic zones and develop the economy in the economic zones.

3) Economic development in the economic zones is an open concept. When talking about economic development at border gates to promote growth in commercial activities, it does not only mean the buying and selling of goods.

As mentioned, the economic zone cannot be separated from the existence of residents. When there are residents, besides commercial activities, there are also other production and business activities such as small-scale industrial production to produce products that directly serve the needs of residents traveling between countries at the border gate area.

Furthermore, economic development in the economic zones also depends on the development level of social productive forces. The history of the development of border gates shows that, initially, border gates were only places for international trade of goods. Through border gates, countries carried out import and export. When the level of production capacity developed higher, trade exchanges developed higher, at the border gates there also appeared the needs for commercial processing activities and service provision activities. Increased income of the population led to the emergence of the needs for sightseeing and tourism of the people of the countries. Therefore, border gates no longer only functioned as a simple import and export of goods but also provided processing activities, provided international transportation and payment services. Thus, the development of the productive forces will expand the scope of international trade and domestic trade activities at the border gates.

As international trade and domestic trade activities at border gates increase, the population living at border gates increases, and there is a need to expand the geographical scope of the economic zones. The result of expanding the geographical scope of the economic zones is that, in addition to the existing trade, service and tourism activities, industrial production activities in the economic zones also develop.

Therefore, it is necessary to see that economic development in the EZs is an open concept, it will change its scope according to the development level of social productive forces. At a low level, we understand economic development in the EZs as

On the basis of border gates, countries build economic zones, taking trade activities as the core for development.

Second, the main content of economic development in border economic zones

1) Trading activities. In the conditions of a self-sufficient natural economy, the economy is dispersed in closed territories. The economic development of different regions is concentrated in the village, commune, and land communities. The exchange of goods has not had the conditions to develop. In the centralized planning mechanism, we also see that commercial activities and exchange of goods have not developed.

When the centralized, bureaucratic, subsidized economic management mechanism was abolished and the market mechanism was gradually formed, especially in the context of strong international integration, the situation changed fundamentally. The characteristics of separatism, locality, and division of circulation according to administrative geography and national scope were gradually abolished and replaced by an open-door economic policy. The exchange and purchase of goods became a matter of survival for each enterprise, each locality, and each country. In the context of the transition from a natural, self-sufficient, and self-sufficient economic state to a commodity economy, developing into a market economy and international integration, the pioneering role in paving the way belonged to trade. With the development of a market economy, the implementation of free circulation of goods, and the stabilization of commodity and monetary exchange relations, the market opened up, and the space and time for commodity exchange were also expanded. The exchange of goods not only takes place between regions of the country but also occurs increasingly strongly between countries, with border gates being the focal point for this exchange [69].

Conceptually, the sale of goods is a commercial activity in which the seller is obliged to deliver goods, transfer ownership of goods to the buyer and receive payment; the buyer is obliged to pay the seller, receive goods and ownership of goods according to the agreement. The scope of the sale of goods includes activities

Buying and selling of all types of real estate, including real estate formed in the future, as well as objects attached to land.

The purchase and sale of goods in the economic zones includes both the purchase and sale of goods in the domestic market and the purchase and sale of goods internationally. In the economic development of the economic zones, the international purchase and sale of goods is of primary concern. The Commercial Law of our country considers the purchase and sale of goods to be carried out in the forms of export, import, temporary import, re-export, temporary export, re-import and transit [61].

2) Service provision is a commercial activity in which the service provider is obliged to perform a service for another party and receive payment; the service user (customer) is obliged to pay the service provider and use the service according to the agreement. In the economic zones, service activities mainly include activities serving the purchase and sale of goods such as: Goods transportation services; Payment services; Information services; Logistics services are commercial activities in which traders organize the performance of one or more tasks including receiving goods, transporting, storing, storing, carrying out customs procedures, other paperwork, customer consulting, packaging, marking, delivery or other services related to goods according to the agreement with the customer.

3) Trade promotion is the activity of promoting and seeking opportunities to buy and sell goods and provide services, including promotional activities, commercial advertising, displaying and introducing goods and services, and trade fairs and exhibitions. Normally in the economic zones, trade promotion activities do not stop at the goal of selling goods but also aim to research the market, find partners and attract investment.

4) Commercial processing is a commercial activity in which the processing party uses part or all of the raw materials and materials of the ordering party.

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