Role of social and economic interactions in territory development of Iceland

Iceland was identified as a country with relatively high achieved competitiveness level and at the same time negative growth capacity, i.e. trend of relatively fast declining of this competitiveness. As a research hypothesis the authors suggest that Iceland's social and economic interactions - looking at the interconnection of this country with other “worlds-economies†- are not diversified enough. The analysis of export and import flows, flows of international migration as well as logistic interconnections (direct flights) of Iceland shows that “energy consumers with strong social infrastructure†(“the USA’s/the UK’s group†), i.e. a market-capitalist “world-economy†, is an absolute leader (80-90%) for Icelandic international trade and migration – both incoming and outgoing. The research hypothesis that Iceland’s territorial development (in particular, negative trend of territory development during the last 10 years) is greatly determined by intensity and direction of Iceland’s social and economic interactions, has been proved based on the analysis of Icelandic statistics as well as results of several researches – both Icelandic and global. As the outcomes of the research showed, Iceland is “on friendly terms†mainly with the representatives of its own “world-economy†. Also a kind of sub-“world-economy†is formed which can be referred to as a Northern-Atlantic one. Social and economic interactions with the representatives of its own “world-economy†mainly draw Iceland’s territory development in their direction, and, as the trends of their development are negative or stagnate, Iceland’s trend of competitiveness generally is also drawn after them.