REGIONAL STRATEGY AS A TOOL FOR EASING INTER-TERRITORIAL CONTRASTS: THEORY AND PRACTICE
The presence of inter-territorial contrasts has a significant impact on the current and future development of the region, including the efficiency of its economy. Domestic and foreign experience shows that the process of softening inter-territorial contrasts is long-lasting. One of the documents that determine the development of the region over a long period of time is its strategy. This research is devoted to the characterization of regional strategies as tools for implementing policies aimed at mitigating inter-territorial contrasts. The author investigates the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the strategic vision of the territory’s development and the dynamics of changes in its inherent intermunicipal contrasts. To test the hypothesis, the strategies of the regions that include the Ural Federal district were evaluated using the questionnaire developed by the author, and the values of the coefficient of center-peripheral differences were calculated. The content of the concept “interterritorial contrasts” is clarified, its connection with the term “territorial differentiation” is shown. According to the results of the study, a partial confirmation of the hypothesis was made. It is shown that regional strategies can become effective tools for mitigating inter-territorial contrasts. The results of the research can be used in the preparation of federal guidelines for the development of regional strategies, updating strategic planning documents of the Russian Federation subjects, and forming appropriate regional policies.
Keywords: region, regional economy, strategy, strategic planning, center-periphery, asymmetry of socio-economic development, interterritorial contrasts, center-peripheral differences.
Highlights:
♦ interterritorial contrasts can be analyzed as an extreme case of territorial differentiation. The review of scientific literature has allowed us to distinguish three types of interterritorial contrasts: contrasts on the line “center-periphery”, contrasts on the line “North - South”, asymmetry of socio-economic development;
♦ the problem of inter-territorial contrasts in the development of regions is reflected in almost all strategies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of the Ural Federal district. The exception are documents approved before the adoption of Federal law No. 172-FL of 28.06.2014 “On strategic planning in the Russian Federation”;
♦ it is shown that in a number of regions whose strategies contain provisions related to the problem of interterritorial contrasts, these contrasts were mitigated in the period from 2014 to 2019. In regions where such provisions did not exist, interterritorial contrasts increased.
Ekaterina I. Kajbicheva, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor of the Regional, Municipal Economics and Management Department of the Ural State University of Economics, Yekaterinburg.