Territory Development Program as a Tool to Overcome the Polarization Effect (on the Example of the «Vostok» Socio-Economic Development Program)

Abstract

The problems of overcoming polarization processes in modern economic geography are considered by the scientific community from different points of view, but most of the works are devoted to the problems of assessing the polarization processes of regions. The issues of overcoming polarization through the use of a set of tools for spatial and strategic planning have been little studied and are based on theoretical and methodological studies. Therefore, the applied use of polarization smoothing tools is a topical topic of research. The purpose of this study is to analyze one of the development programs as a tool for overcoming polarization processes, using the example of the Kaliningrad region. As a result of the study, the main directions and prospects for the further development of the «Vostok» socio-economic development program were identified. The author analyzed a number of socio-economic indicators of the municipalities included in the «Vostok» program. In particular, indicators of trade turnover per capita, volumes of industrial and agricultural production, commissioning of residential buildings. The municipal formations of the east, according to the data obtained, develop unevenly, while the border territories remote from the federal highways are depressive, the territories located closer to the center of the region are more developed. The study revealed a low effectiveness of the program (despite the achievement of planned figures for a number of indicators, in the eastern municipalities there is still a reduction in jobs, a decrease in the number of enterprises and organizations and an outflow of the population). But at the same time, the results obtained made it possible to identify prospects for further development program as a tool for managing the spatial development of the mesoregion.