Prospects for Regional Economic Changes in the Russian Far East under the Drastic, Politico-economical Restructuring

Abstract

The Soviet, and later the Russian Far East has been the focus of domesticand foreign attention since the reevalttation of its foreign economic policy through perestroyka. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the future of the CIS is unclear, and also the Russian Federation including the Far East is experiencing political, economic restructuring. Recently in Japan, we have had lively discussions about the Russian FarEast and its economic relations to our country. That region is regarded as a part of "the Sea of Japan Economic Region" or "the Northeast Asian Economic Zone".It is, however, necessary to examine the foreign economic relations of the Russian Far East, because "the Sea of Japan Economic Region" or "the Northeast Asian Economic Zone" is not yet an established economic region. The author examines this problem, paying attention subregional differences within the Russian FarEast. The results are to be summarized as follows. Until the late 198Os, the centralized command economy and limited foreign relations had made the former Soviet Far East a resource supply region with certain sectors of rnanufacturing. It can be characterized as a periphery to the European core of the former Soviet Union. In addition, there could and can befound marked regional differences in socio-economic conditions especially between the southern and the northern part of the Far East. Since the late 1980s, the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation have adopted various policies,regarding the Far East as of greater importance, in order to promote their foreign economic relations. As a result, the number of joint-ventures, for example, is growing. Meanwhile, the relationship between the Russian central authority and the local ones has not yet been fully established along with stagnant decentralization of power after the August coup d'etat. Although both the shift to a market economy and the expansion of the foreign economic relations are taking place in the Far East as a whole, it is predictable that spatial disparity is going to increase within this region, judging from the inherited, regional economic conditions and the location of recently registered joint-ventures. Therefore, it is important how and to what degree each of the Russian central authority and the local ones can participate in the restructuring of the regional and subregional economies. In this context, the outcomes in the near future of the state regional program "the Far East" and the state program for the socio-economic development in the Northern regions are worthy of attention.In any case, it is not only with the countries on the Japan Sea but also with the other Asian-Pacific countries that the Soviet and later the Russian Far East has developed and intends to develop its foreign economic relations.