Customs-free Zones and Their Space-organising Role in Hungary

Abstract

In Hungary the commercial and industrial customs-free zones have already been operating successfully for more than two decades, as means of regional development and economic policy. The commercial customs-free zones have been functioning as means of economic policy especially in the 1980s, and have gained large-scale convertible currency for the national economy. The industrial customs-free zones, as means of economic policy have been promoted by foreign capital investments, the structural transformation of the industry and the naturalization of new branches in Hungary. In the period of ecomomlc transition the industrial customs-free zone, as a means of regional development, has operated most efficiently in the Western and Central Transdanubian Regions.