Regional economy and regional policy

The economy of the region is understood as the integral system of management that has developed in it, the totality of all its economic and social factors, as well as the relationships between them and similar factors of other regions, which determines the level of development of productive forces and social processes in the region. Proceeding from the objectively existing asymmetry between regions (see paragraph 1.1), the problem of managing their economic development arises in order to achieve and maintain a balance of national and regional interests, reduce regional differences in the levels of socio-economic development and living conditions of the population and, as a result, increase national security and preserve the integrity, unity and vitality of the state as a whole.

Thus, the purposeful management of the regional economy is the most important component of the regional policy of the state, which is understood as the sphere of activity for managing the economic, social and political development of the country in the territorial, regional aspect, i.e. associated with the relationship between the state and the regions, as well as the regions among themselves.

The general objectives of the regional policy are:

creation and consolidation of a single economic space and provision of economic, social, legal and organizational foundations of statehood; relative equalization of the levels of socio-economic development of the regions; priority development of regions of particular strategic importance for the state; the most effective use of the country’s resource potential; solution of environmental problems of the regions.

The achievement of these general, strategic goals is achieved by solving more specific tasks, which include:

reducing regional disparities in the well-being of the population; ensuring self-sustaining growth in the regions, an acceptable level of income and employment; smoothing spatial differences; support for weak regions; the redistribution of resources between the rich and poor territories of the country; increasing the competitiveness of the regions; stimulation of economic activity in backward, depressed, crisis or underdeveloped regions and restraint, restriction of business activity in “overheated” regions, oversaturated with production, with unfavorable environmental conditions, etc .; “mitigation” of contradictions between the city and the countryside, solving the problem of urbanization; establishment of the optimal level of correlation between the national and regional levels of government; solving national problems; rational placement of new industrial facilities, etc.

The objects of regional policy are various territorial units, both fixed by the administrative-territorial division of the country (regions, districts, provinces, cantons, lands, etc.), and specially defined for the purposes of regional policy in the normative acts of authorities and administration (for example, zones of radioactive contamination).

The subjects of regional policy are the external authorities of the states, and in the context of globalization and international integration – special supranational governing bodies (for example, in the EU – this is the European Commission and, in particular, its structural unit – the Directorate-General of Regional Policy, responsible for solving the tasks of reducing differences in the socio-economic development of the regions).

Principles of the state regional policy:

decentralization, i.e. delegation of rights and obligations in the field of regulation of regional development by local governments and self-government; priority, i.e. concentration of efforts on solving the most important problems of the regions; subsidiarity, which implies government intervention in solving only the most complex regional problems; flexibility associated with regular analysis of the consequences and adjustment of regional policies; partnership, involving close interaction and cooperation of the highest bodies of state administration of local government and self-government and all stakeholders in the development and implementation of regional policy; prevention due to the timely intervention of the state in regional development (before the emergence of territorial imbalances); permanence, as a constant, continuous and comprehensive monitoring of processes in the regions and the corresponding impact on them; transparency (openness) of the state regional policy.