Content №4 от 2003
Use of mineral resources and problems of resource areas viewed from the position of Russian federalism.
The process of unification and formalization of relations among different levels of state government in the sphere of use of mineral resources that is underway leads actually to elimination from joint competence (ownership, use and disposal) of such a subject as the state fund of mineral resources. The recent changes in this field and in taxation of mineral resources are designed to return the paternalistic model to the social and economic development of the resource areas. These areas are in fact excluded not only from joint management of the state fund of mineral resources, but also from participation in decisions that concern their own social and economic problems. These things, along with fiscal taxation of the resource sector, cannot be expected to improve the efficiency in the use of national resource potential.
Conceptual structure of the tourism phenomena in a region: methodology.
The goals are to understand conceptual structure of the tourism phenomena. The paper formulates the tasks in developing tourism in a region. Tourism is viewed as a system of elements and ties - this approach would help to turn it into a profitable industry. Its stages are specified according to the outlined sub-goals. Within each stage the tasks are stated pursuing efficient use of resource subsystems, determination of territorial borders of tourism expansion, choice of targeted markets of consumers, priorities in the development of individual subsystems or groups of subsystems in different periods of time.
Development prospects for the economy of federal districts
The challenge to accelerated national economic growth has aroused a mass of comments and debates. These debates concern largely the macro level (GDP) and regional level, while the level of federal districts is disregarded. The authors fill in this blank with respect to the Siberian Federal District. They give their assessment of the social-economic situation in the district and possible scenarios of its development. On the basis of a system of money circulation models elaborated at the IEIE SB RAS the projections of development dynamics of federal districts up 2010 are given.
Analysis of "gas project" sustainability to possible changes in the economic environment.
Possible changes in foreign economic environment may increase the pay-back period for the key system-forming project of the use of natural gas extracted in the Asian part of the country and reduce its efficiency. A procedure of selection among project variants is suggested. Their analysis has shown that the variant of gas deliveries that is most sustainable to possible changes in the environment in terms of pure discounted income for major project participants is to supply rather higher value products of gas than gas itself.
Reconciliation of the federal/regional interests in oil and gas investment projects.
A scheme for reconciliation of the interests of participants in a large gas project on Yamal is suggested. The acceptable size of tax concessions is estimated by taking into account the specificity of budgetary revenues in a resource region: tax revenues expected from the project implementation must at least compensate the anticipated fall of incomes from other industries in the region. A scheme is suggested by which to estimate the "price" of the concession for regional and federal budgets in those taxes which make the project most attractive for investors. It is shown that the key criterion in determination of the direction and size of concessions must be maximization of increment of net current value at small change in the tax rate. On the case of projected dynamics of an imaginary investment project "Yamal Gas" the variants of regional and federal policy are considered that are aimed to encourage project implementation and provide the level of its efficiency acceptable for investors.
The economy of federal districts: comparative analysis.
The analysis performed by the authors has permitted them to come to a conclusion that for the years of reforms no radical changes in the location of key factors of production - fixed capital and population - have occurred in the spatial structure of key macro indicators of the federal districts. The examination of inter-regional variation of output and use of added value has shown that the major factor of territorial disparities is rather the institutional system of redistribution of the generated value than changes in the structure of relative prices.
To move leasing to the market economy of Russia
The paper analyses the problem-analytical aspect of leasing in Russia. Leasing is a form of investments made into the real sector of the economy. Considered are its problems: high costs and short-term of bank credits, imperfect taxation of the object of leasing, non-compliance among many effective laws, customs constraints, poor quality of national legislations, lack in the NIS countries of a standard law space for leasing activity, etc. The national and regional dynamics of leasing and its prospects are assessed.
Regional television in the Siberian Federal District
The structure of the TV market in the Siberian Federal District is examined. It is suggested to classify it on the basis of geography, organization of broadcasting, form of ownership of the company-broadcaster and goals of broadcasting. Form of ownership influences organization of broadcasting, technical equipment and personnel of companies, the structure of the broadcasting network of companies with different form of ownership is analysed. The author gives minimum estimate of the regional advertisement market which is the key source of finances for private TV companies.
Taxation costs: measurement and assessment problems
The paper is devoted to taxation costs; costs of tax collection and enforcement of tax law born by the state and by taxpayers. First the costs of tax collection born by the state are considered. It is costs of tax administering. They can be diminished and the ways to do this are shown. As to costs of tax law enforcement born by taxpayers, they are costs of tax reconciliation. The costs of tax reconciliation must be measured through sampling surveys of enterprises. On the results of a sampling poll of small business conducted in the city of Irkutsk, a conclusion about negative effect of costs of tax reconciliation on the development of small business and about a need to reduce this kind of costs was made.
Regional differentiation in the development of small business.
To differentiate the region on the development of small business, the authors selected 79 regions where the number of small enterprises in each was at least 600. Two groups of criteria to assess the influence of small business on social and economic situation in regions were formulated. With their help the summary rating of leaders and laggards was obtained and integral assessment of the linkage between the development of small business and economic growth of the region was assessed.
Assessment of shadowy economy in the region's industry.
Assessing the system of shadowy economy, the authors conclude that the intensity of this process in the regional industry grows up. The shadowy economy gets expanded definition. Measures and means of fight the shadowy economy, in the authors' opinion, must be aimed not so much at liquidation as at confinement of the shadowy activity and keeping it at a certain tolerable level. The procedure of quantitative assessment of hidden volumes of production and profits is given. This procedure makes it possible to take into account regional feature of the sectoral structure of industry. On this basis the assessment of the share of hidden production and profits in the Irkutsk region is assessed.
Corporative strategy as a factor of integration of the textile industry.
The strategies of large corporations are presented as a factor integrating industry and inter-industry structures of the new economic environment. On the case of Russia-based trans-national corporation "Group Makarios" it is shown how during economic transition in Russia and NIS countries there arise separate territorial areas of TNC economic interests. The factors underlying hard economic situation of the national textile industry in the 1990s are shown to be leveled in the strategy of "Group Makarios" TNC .
Toward budgetary independence of municipal units
Within the framework of fiscal policy it is suggested using regulating taxes along with financial aid from higher-level budgets to provide financial independence for local government. On the case of personal income tax of the Novosibirsk region it is shown that introduction of differentiated rates in distribution of regulating taxes yields equalizing effect. It is concluded, therefore, that it is necessary to go from universal subsidies to technologies of earmarked programmatic funding based on concrete priorities of regional budgetary policy.
Forecasting of Social-economic Development of a Multiple-functional City
The paper gives the approach to the forecasting of the social and economic development for a mono-functional city. The main point of the approach is to take into account all key internal and external parameters defining a city development trajectory and their linkage and interaction. The system model of how a city functions is used to calculate the variants of city development. This approach provides the possibility to choose a development strategy via analyzing different options
Problems of investment-construction complex in an agro-business region.
The paper states the key tenets on investment activity in a region with agro-business specialization that underlie the formation of a mechanism providing the efficiency of state investments. The present state of investment activity is characterized by its dynamics and causes impeding the development of the investment-construction complex in the Altai krai.
