Sectoral Aspects of the Development of Old Industrial Regions of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The relevance of the problem is that the policy of modernization of the country’s industrial complex has attracted attention to the problems of old industrial regions – territories where highly specialized industries associated with “outgoing” technological patterns are concentrated. The object of the study is the old industrial regions of the European part of Russia. The study aims to study the dynamics of the sectoral structure of old industrial regions and identify their contribution to the economic development of the respective federal districts. Foreign researchers of old industrial regions and their Russian colleagues associate the problems of functioning of territories of this type with the difficulties of introducing innovations into production processes, as well as with the specifics of their participation in global socio-economic processes. The study’s methodology is based on a systematic approach to the study of old industrial regions and the use of economic and statistical analysis. This allows us to specify the most critical trends in the dynamics of their sectoral structure and on this basis assess their contribution to the development of the federal districts of the European part of Russia. It is shown that due to the specifics of the industry structure, it is increasingly difficult for old industrial regions to ensure competitiveness in comparison with other types of regions, in particular, resource and service territories. It is proved that the old industrial regions of the European part of Russia with a more diversified economy, particularly Vologda and Nizhny Novgorod regions, make a more significant contribution to the development of the federal districts in which they are located, compared with other regions of this type. In order to increase the role of old industrial regions in the development of federal districts and the country as a whole, the necessity of intensifying the participation of the state in the processes of diversification of their regional economies is justified, which consists in the formation of an institutional environment in which regions of this type will be able to achieve competitive advantages. The sources will be not traditional, but new abilities and resources that allow oldindustrial regions to introduce innovations into traditional branches of the regional economy more actively.