Potentialities and Threats of Border Area Development: Case of Aras Areas of Iran

Abstract

Recently, border regions and border effect have attracted a lot of interest in political practice and economic research. Border areas as centres of trade tend to have good potential for development, but often these areas suffer from underdevelopment and Aras border area in Iran is no exception. This study was conducted to investigate the role of the border in the development of rural areas across the border. The study area of research was Aras border region that includes Western and Eastern districts of Gojlrat, Chaybasar-e sharghi and Zangbar in Poldasht city in North West Iran. Sampling is based on the Cochrane method and 110 people with confidence level of 95%. Information required in this study has been collected by the local review, inquiry and the questionnaire. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics and comparative study. The result shows that due to inadequate income generation opportunity, people living in the border area rely on informal businesses, mostly illegal trade and activities. Moreover, problems of borders and especially sustainable security in the border areas, are not merely disciplinary problems, but rather are political, economic, social and cultural nature. Since different social, cultural and environmental features shape the character of each of the border areas contributing their strength, weakness, potential and also certain limitations. Hence, development of these regions should be planned according to their distinctive requirements and priorities; and particularly border regions need special planning due to their unique characteristics. Keywords: Rural development, Core-periphery, Bor