Agglomerative Processes in Siberia: Where to Start

Abstract

Given current conditions, questions related to the effectiveness of territorial development are becoming more and more relevant. Agglomerative processes allow for the activation of additional resources in economic development, which increases the governability of territories and improves the population’s quality of life. Two processes take place in parallel: the establishing and financing of agglomerations from above and the gradual formation of agglomerations from below. The problem arises due to the distribution of efforts (finance and administrative leverage) between these two levels. This article studies the mechanisms of interaction in territories at the regional and municipal levels and analyzes the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of agglomerations. The author identifies the fundamental differences between the two approaches to creating agglomerations, “from above” and “from below,” and concludes that the more effective version is construction of agglomerations from below in the form of mutually agreed-upon intermunicipal projects. The development of this approach consists in analyzing the synergetic effect and systematizing these kinds of projects. Also necessary is improvement of the regulatory framework for the creation of sets of intermunicipal projects in federal, territorial, and urban-planning legislation.

Keywords:

• integrative processes
• Siberian Federal Okrug
• reasons for creating agglomerations
• municipal level
• regional level
• effectiveness criteria
• Barnaul agglomeration

Notes

1. According to the foundation’s director, V.N. Kniaginin, during the round-table “Formirovanie aglomeratsii—sovremennye proekty prostranstvennogo razvitiia,” December 19, 2006.

2. Kudrin proposed uniting Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Barnaul into an agglomeration. See www.amic.ru/news/401615.

3. Currently the acting governor of Krasnoiarskii krai.

4. A. Uss, “Kak raskryt’ potentsial Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka na sovremennom etape razvitiia Rossii,” Parlamentskaia gazeta, 2017, April 21–27.