Priorities of Socio-Economic Development of the Black Sea Regions in the Context of the State Strategy for Regional Policy

Introduction. Economic transformations in Russia accompanied by constant socio-economic instability, an increase in crisis phenomena, imbalances in regional development require the development of specific measures in the framework of the socio-economic reforms’ implementation in the development of regions. This will create a basis for regional development, implement its strategic goals. At the present stage of socio-economic reforms in Russia, the formation of effective and unique models for the development of regions is becoming a strategic task of all government institutions. Its management in the context of economic reforms for increasing national economy competitiveness should comply with the basic principles of the State Strategy for Regional Development, which is an enlarged model for the implementation of the national goal to determine goals, existing trends and patterns of development, the formation of strategic priorities in structural, investment, innovation policy by regions, determining stages and mechanisms for their implementation.

Materials and methods. General scientific methods, systematic, structural-functional and institutional approaches to the analysis of the regional policy of the Russian Black Sea region are used.

Results. The system of strategic planning of regional development in Russia is represented by strategic and program documents of four levels: state, regional, subregional and local (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Strategic planning system for regional development in Russia

At the national level, strategic development priorities for all regions of Russia are defined in the State Regional Development Strategy for the period up to 2025, which was approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 16, 2017 No. 13,269.6 kb. [1].

Regional strategies for socio-economic development are consistent with the provisions of the State Strategy for Regional Development of Russia. At the level of all regions of Russia, their own development strategies have been adopted. In this study, the regional strategies of the territories of the Russian Black Sea region were analyzed: the Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea up to 2030 [2], the Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Krasnodar Krai up to 2030 [3] and the Programme of the Russian Federation on the socio-economic development of new regions, in particular, Kherson region [4].

The next level of strategizing after the regional level is the subregional level. The strategizing of subregional development strategies is based on the regional priorities and the principle of interterritorial partnership. Interterritorial partnership is a special form of interaction in a horizontal plane, a system of legally fixed mutually beneficial relations between two territorial communities or more that border each other, and which implement these relations through the relevant local authorities with the participation of local executive authorities [5, 6].

The important feature of the interterritorial partnership is that it involves not only local authorities, but also representatives of the private sector, communities, sciences and other concerned parties. This makes subregional strategies closest to the real needs of the inhabitants of the subregion, which makes it possible to propose specific and effective mechanisms and tools for implementing certain priorities [7].

The issue of interterritorial partnership is of particular importance in the context of preparing for the implementation of the new draft law on general principles of local self-government, which should complete the reform laid down by the constitutional amendments of 2020. One of the main innovations is the redistribution of powers between different levels of government, the transition from a two-level system of local government to a one-level [8]. The higher the degree of the administrative territorial units’ autonomy, the more they need cooperation and the more they can cooperate. Cooperation is very important for the well-being and development of any society.

The local level of strategic planning is represented by the strategies of individual cities, districts, villages. The main problem of this level is the lack of development strategies for most villages in Russia. Business and local authorities are not involved in the development of strategies for the development of territorial communities at the local level.

Implementation of the State regional development strategy requires to update existing regional strategies for socioeconomic development and develop effective mechanisms for the practical implementation of the regional self-development principles. Regional development priorities in the territories of the Russian Black Sea region are systematized in Fig. 2.

The analysis of strategies showed that all territories of the Russian Black Sea region prioritize the agro-industrial complex, transport and logistics, tourism and recreation. The development of innovations as a strategic priority is provided by the strategies of the Krasnodar Krai and the Sochi subregion.

The priority of social development is present in strategies at the regional level, and at the subregional level — the priority of human development, which is focused on improving the professional qualities of people and their cultural development. At the regional level, the development of industries has been prioritized, and specific mechanisms and tools for creating a favorable business environment are proposed for the subregional development of small and mediumsized businesses. One of the main problems in the development of innovation is the imperfection of regional innovation and investment management systems. Instead, subregional strategies offer specific projects to develop infrastructure for innovation.

The key strategic documents of the territories of the Russian Black Sea region were analyzed in the context of compliance with the instruments of state regional policy (Table 1).

The results of the study are as follows: 1) the social component: is present in all strategies at the regional level, at the subregional level in the Sochi subregion, human capital is a priority; 2) interterritorial cooperation: is not specified in any regional-level strategy, but it is the main component of subregional strategies and the main principle of their development and implementation; 3) business and innovation development tools: are included in all strategies, but in subregional strategies these tools are applied and more adapted to implementation; 4) tools for the development of small towns and villages: special attention is paid to small towns and villages in the strategies of the Republic of Crimea and the Krasnodar Krai; 5) cross-sector partnership (power-business): all strategies note the importance of cooperation between government, business and local governments, but specific mechanisms offer subregional strategies that have been developed with the involvement of all stakeholders of regional development.

Fig. 2. System of strategic planning of regional development of the Russian Black Sea region

Table 1

Assessment of compliance of regional and subregional socio-economic development strategies of the Russian Black Sea region with regional policy strategy instruments

The general problems of development strategizing for all regions of Russia are as follows. The tasks defined in the state strategic and program documents are large-scale and very ambitious, which determines their declarativity. The strategic objectives, priorities and sequence of their implementation lack clear cause-and-effect coordination, as well as the system of mechanisms and tools for achieving the defined tasks, which creates the need for separate detailed documents, which include medium-to-short-term national government programs, annual schedule of measures for the implementation of the state strategy, long-term regional development strategies and regional development agreements [9, 10]. In addition, despite the fact that all Russian regions have regional strategies, they are approved at different times, have different degrees of detail, and differ in structure. Plans for the implementation of regional strategies are either absent at all or are in the nature of a document that has little to do with the strategy itself. Monitoring parameters of strategies implementation are poorly correlated with their goals or are in the nature of indicators in rubles, which is an unsuitable tool for control due to inflationary developments.

In mainstreaming subregional and regional strategies in line with the national development strategy, regional development policy priorities should be taken into account, in particular:

1. Interterritorial cooperation (intermunicipal, subregional, interregional, cross-border cooperation): strengthening the implementation of the developed subregional strategic plans; transfer of experience of subregional strategy to other subregions of the Russian Black Sea region; creation of a network of subregions of the Russian Black Sea region for the exchange of experience in the development and implementation of strategic plans.

2. Inclusive democracy (participatory democracy) is direct participation of local governments in the processes of preparation, decision-making and control over their implementation. The main mechanisms of inclusive democracy under the current legislation are as follows: public hearings, a meeting of citizens at the place of residence, local initiatives, selforganization bodies of the population, public expertise, public consultations. Through the local initiative mechanism, the municipality can initiate consideration by the local council of any important issue, in fact, regardless of the desire of the chairman and deputies, and the local council must consider the local initiative and decide on the merits.

The role of regional authorities is to ensure the legal regulation of democratic participation mechanisms (organization charter and/or regulations), to inform citizens of their right and opportunity to participate in local affairs, to provide the practical realization by citizens of the right to participate [11, 12].

3. Interregional interaction of the territories of the Russian Black Sea region in key sectors of their development, agro-industrial and marine: development of interregional spatial planning programmes, introduction of institutional mechanisms of interregional management in such areas as sea transport, shipbuilding and shiprepairing, tourism and recreation, ecology, bank strengthening, creation of a single innovative infrastructure, etc. [13].

4. Balanced development of rural and peripheral territories at the level of economic integration to a single socioeconomic space of the region.

5. Development of an effective regional innovation management system taking into account interregional interaction mechanisms. Regional development strategies note that the existing system of innovation management at the regional level is ineffective, which significantly slows down innovation development in the regions [14].

6. In order to practically implement the above priorities of socio-economic development of the Russian Black Sea region, as well as to attract specialists and practitioners of regional and local development (science, education, business, power) to the process of updating regional strategies for socio-economic development in accordance with the state strategic documents, it is proposed to create a Center for interregional economic development of the Russian Black Sea region on the principles of public partnership. The Center’s experts will monitor and solve problems both at the executive level and local authorities, exchange experience in specialized committees and propose alternative ways to solve problems and introduce innovations in regional socio-economic development. The center will also coordinate the efforts of the regions in the field of enhancing cross-border and interregional cooperation within the framework of international organizations in the Black Sea basin.

Discussion and conclusion. The directions of transformation of the priorities of the social and economic development of the regions of the Russian Federation, in particular of the Russian Black Sea region, should include the creation of conditions for the full use of the region’s potential, democracy of public participation in the implementation of the regional development strategy, the development of an institutional and economic mechanism providing for the introduction of state-public and state-entrepreneurial initiatives for the effective use of financial and economic levers of state regional policy. Such initiatives should be implemented on the principles of synchronizing actions, subsidiarity and partnership.