MACROREGIONAL REGULATION OF ECONOMIC SPACE: FUNCTIONAL TASKS AND IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS

Given the increasing degree of external threats to the Russian economy and the importance of ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, issues of strengthening the unity of the economic space are becoming more pressing. The importance of interregional interaction and cooperation of the subjects of the federation within the framework of meso level management of spatial development, represented primarily by macroregions, is growing. It must be acknowledged that the continuing uncertainty regarding the status of macroterritories in the theory and practice of spatial regulation reduces the effectiveness of the state’s regional policy. In Russian practice of regional development, the division of space into macroregions meets all the signs of the process of economic zoning, aimed primarily at determining the territorial proportions of development. This approach allows us to identify a macroregion, first of all, as an economic-geographical category, and fits into the concept of zoning, in which each such territory performs its specific functional role in the socio-economic development of the country. A retrospective assessment of approaches to economic zoning showed that a clear methodology for marking the boundaries of macroregions and requirements for their participants has not been developed. This explains the change in the number of macroregions, the composition of the administrative-territorial entities included in them, and the area of the territory. The analysis of macroterritories for the purpose of assessing the identity of the production and economic specialization of the constituent entities of the federation included in them, carried out using the example of the Southern and Central macroregions, allows us to conclude that the basic set of industries represented in them is heterogeneous. The consideration of the macroregion as a territorially formed part of the national economic complex is supplemented by a study of its place as a participant in strategic planning. It is shown that one of the most difficult problems is overcoming the duality of subjects of the meso level of public administration, represented by both macroregions and federal districts. A set of measures is required that will help overcome the situation that leads to the limited functionality of these territories in the spatial strategizing of the economy.

macroregion, federal district, economic zoning, meso level of public administration, spatial regulation, industries of production specialization, spatial development strategy, subjects of the federation, strategizing, economic space

Domnina I. N. Macroregional regulation of economic space: functional tasks and implementation problems. Biznes. Obrazovanie. Pravo = Business. Education. Law. 2024;3(68):91—97. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2024.68.1065.