Expert word

Road Case

The priority federal support for successful regions and their infrastructures has also its drawbacks. The less developed constituents of the Russian Federation feel deprived as they badly need more financial injections. In this respect the case of the Arkhangelsk region is typical: the development of this territory which is nationally important and has rich resources, seriously lags behind the other raw materials regions. The exploration of the northern natural resources is impeded by not only the adverse environment but also the underdeveloped road, energy, social infrastructures, the modernization of which requires enormous expenditures.

At the same time, it does not mean that the region stands absolutely no chance in the inter-regional and global competition. If the region is able to offer the federal center an attractive and convincing proposal, it has a chance to attract budgetary investments into the development of its infrastructure. And this, in turn, will boost the regional economy.

One of the major infrastructural problems the regions faces today is the backlog in the development of its transport network: the density of its general purpose roads is almost half the national average, and, putting it mildly, their condition leaves much to be desired. The Motor Licensing and Inspection Department has repeatedly threatened to close the М8 Federal Highway Moscow - Arkhangelsk for buses and big trucks because of its appalling condition. Not less than 100 kilometers of road surface are in need of repairs every year, while out of 100-120 mln rubles a mere 30 mln is allocated for running repairs, according to the regional administration’s estimates. The road problem not only has adverse effects on the social conditions lowering the region’s competitiveness as a transit center, but also slows down its industrial development.

Today transit regions like Saint Petersburg, the Maritime Territory in the Far East, and the Krasnodar Territory of the south of European Russia, are in favor with the federal government: they get support from the Investment fund and are recipients of targeted investment programs, etc. The Arkhangelsk region has been indulged with no such favors yet or the locals say, "the country has forgotten that Arkhangelsk used to be its first gate into the world ".

We have four national projects but we have forgotten the most important national problem - the transport network. At the same time, in the light of the above figures it becomes clear that no federal program can cover all of the region’s needs. We should think really hard if we are capable of providing a normal level of infrastructure development throughout the region. It is not enough to build roads it will also be necessary to maintain them. We should not rule out a "targeted" approach here, for example, with an emphasis on modernizing the infrastructure of large city agglomerations.