Kuzbass Development Strategy: Past Lessons and Future Wrongs

¹ Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, 17 Acad. Lavrentyev Av., Russian Federation
² T.F. Gorbatchev Kuzbass State Technical University, 650000 Kemerovo, 28 Vesennya st., Russian Federation

^* Corresponding author: yurifridman@mail.ru

Abstract

The article discusses the place and role of strategic planning in ensuring that Kemerovo Oblast – Kuzbass develops comprehensively. For over thirty years, we have been studying the region with one of the leading national territorial-production centers established in the 20th century, how it emerged and functioned. Studies suggest that without regard to the economies of Russia as a whole and Kuzbass’s neighboring regions in particular, its issues cannot be satisfactorily resolved. At large, when strategic planning followed this assumption, it contributed to how fast and holistically the territory developed. Considering that, in the 21st century, strategy makers diverged from this concept and started to search for new approaches, the region’s economy has slowed down and its living standards have declined sharply. The momentum can be reversed with an active state socio-economic policy. Its previous forms, however, when the state gave preferences to private companies and did not require corresponding growth in standards of living in return, became unacceptable. It is necessary to work out a system of effective solutions and measures with mechanisms for reconciling the interests of the government, business and society within approaches that are adequate to the political and economic reality of today’s world.