Infrastructure potential of the Russian regions
Evgeny L. Plisetsky,
Doctor of Science (Pedagogy), Professor,
Department of Economic Theory, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation,
Russia
Evgeny E. Plisetsky,
Candidate of Science (Geography), Associate Professor,
Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism, Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, the HSE University,
Russia
Infrastructure management is one of the most important functions of territorial administration. Infrastructure provision of the territory is an effective tool for administrative actions in all aspects of the spatial organization of the economy of the region. Infrastructure as a factor of economic development significantly affects the modernization of production and innovative development of territories, the formation of economic clusters.
It is obvious that the low level of infrastructure provision of the territory (at different levels) constrains investment activity and, in general, the process of placing and developing productive forces, leads to additional costs for creating the initial production and technical base.
Nowadays in Russia a whole range of various administrative tools and measures have developed which aimed at overcoming the infrastructure “fragmentation” of the country’s territory, for example: a comprehensive plan for the modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure for the period up to 2024, federal and regional targeted investment programs, national projects, etc.
The basis of the assessing the infrastructure potential of Russian regions and identification the spatial differences in the level of infrastructure development, is its representation as a set of the main (production and non-production) funds of the territory. The more fund-saturated a territory (region) is, the higher its infrastructure potential is accordingly (Table 1).
Table 1. Assessment of the infrastructure potential of the macro-regions of Russia by the indicator of the fund saturation of the territory (at the beginning of 2018)
| Macro-region[1] | Square of the territory, thousand km2 | Cost of the fixed assets, billion rubles | Share of fully worn-out fixed assets, % | Cost of fixed assets without the cost of fully worn out fixed assets, billion rubles | Fund saturation of the territory, thousand rubles/km2 | Deviation from the national average | Place occupied in the Russian Federation |
| Russian Federation | 17,125.2 | 194,649.5 | 17.9 | 159,807.1 | 9,331.7 | 1.0 | – |
| Central | 482.5 | 54,305.6 | 11.3 | 47,314.6 | 98,061.3 | 10.5 | 1 |
| Central Black Earth Region | 167.8 | 6,334.6 | 17.9 | 5,099.6 | 30,390.9 | 3.3 | 2 |
| North-West | 535.7 | 14,747.5 | 12.6 | 12,656.3 | 23,625.7 | 2.5 | 4 |
| Northern | 1,151.2 | 7,094.1 | 19.4 | 5,603.1 | 4,867.2 | 0.5 | 10 |
| South | 447.9 | 15,326.9 | 12.8 | 13,121.9 | 29,296.5 | 3.1 | 3 |
| North-Caucasian | 170.5 | 4,816.9 | 17.7 | 3,887.7 | 22,801.9 | 2.4 | 5 |
| Volgo-Kamsky | 534.9 | 14,907.7 | 20.4 | 11,633.3 | 21,748.5 | 2.3 | 6 |
| Volga-Uralsky | 502.0 | 12,209.6 | 26.6 | 8,764.7 | 17,459.5 | 1.9 | 7 |
| Ural-Siberian | 1,818.5 | 35,953.4 | 24.2 | 26,683.4 | 14,673.3 | 1.6 | 8 |
| South Siberian | 989.9 | 8,045.2 | 16.4 | 6,599.9 | 6,667.3 | 0.7 | 9 |
| Angara-Yenisei | 3371.8 | 6,916.6 | 12.8 | 5,921.9 | 1,756.3 | 0.2 | 12 |
| Far East | 6,952.6 | 13,991.4 | 8.9 | 12,520.8 | 1,800.9 | 0.2 | 11 |
Source: Rosstat.
According to the calculations, the macro-regions of Central Russia, the North-West, the European South and the Ural-Volga region demonstrated the highest assessment of their infrastructure provision.
A relatively low infrastructure potential is inherent to significant number of subjects of the Russian Federation located in the Northern, South Siberian, Angara-Yenisei and Far Eastern macro-regions. For potential investors, these territories are the least attractive in terms of their readiness for entrepreneurial activity.
More than 1/4 of the subjects of the Russian Federation have a lower level of infrastructure development compared to the national average, which indicates that there are significant territorial differences in the infrastructure provision of the Russian economy.
In general, the assessment of the infrastructure potential of the territory is of considerable interest for diagnosing the socio-economic situation of the region, determining its investment attractiveness and competitiveness.
[1] According to Spatial Development Strategy until 2025 (Government Decree No. 207-r of February 13, 2019).
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