Regional Economic Integration and Risks for Agricultural Products: A Banana Value Chain Analysis in Huong Hoa District, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

2. Background

Economic corridor is defined as “a connector to link production, trade and infrastructure within a specific geographic framework of the centre of economic activities, but it will extend benefit through transport development to rural area through linkage of production activities” (Ishida & Isono, 2012). The development of economic corridors is considred as major determinants of economic integration in many countries because the core priority of economic corridor approach facilitates the transportation and trade. The economic corridor will not only improve the connectivity among regions in the country but also has the potential to enhance the link between countries (Lord, 2009). The impacts of economic corridor at the cross-border areas are observed in various forms. At the macro level, economic corridor development can be seen at impact on economic growth, foreign investment and poverty reduction in the cross-border regions (Brunner, 2013; Ikegami, 2015). At the micro level, previous researchers mention the positive impacts of economic corridor by examining at cost and time reduction, tourism development and the improvement of livelihood (Lord & Tangtrongjita, 2011; Srivastava, 2011).