M.K. Ammosov Yakut State University Faculty of Foreign Languages Department of Interpretation Project on the general economics: «The North-East Economic Region of the Russian Federation. The main directions of the social-economic development of the region» Written by: Nadejda Andreeva, a student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages AO-301-97 Date: 10.05.2000 Yakutsk 2000
CONTENTS I. Current social-economic situation (Republic of Sakha, Magadansky region and Chukotka ) II. The role and the development perspectives of the mining industry. (Diamond, gold, silver) III. Reference I. The modern social-economic situation
North- East regions own unique natural resources and rich raw material potential, including bowels. For many years they have means of increasing foreign investors. Nowadays Republic of Sakha, Magadansky region and Chukotsk are in leading position for gold, tin, antimony and silver mining. The 99% of diamonds and 100% of antimony are being extracted in Republic of Sakha. On the North- East provides 50 % of gold, 221% of fish, 28,8% of the total number of reindeer. North-East occupies 35,2% of the total area of Siberia, 6.3 % of the population, 7.3 % of the total amount of industrial production, 9.4 % of coal mining, 24.6% of fishing. This region has a great importance and influence on the economy of the Far East economic territory. However, as a result of economic reforms and going over to market relations the regions of North-East are suffering from decrease of production and aggravation of social and economic situation more than any part of Russian Federation on average. There is a stable decrease of the contribution and share of North- East in the Russian economy, as seen from the table1. The process of reorganization extremely varies in different areas of the Russian Federation, as a matter of fact North- East is absolutely different from central, Siberian and Far-East regions. This occurs, mainly, due to the fact that North-East regions have specific geographical, historical and social-economic peculiarities. First of all, this is because of remoteness of North- East from the center and small number of the population: the density of the population is 9-10 times smaller than in the country on average. These are the main reasons for its strategic weakness, which for many years dictated the necessity of agricultural and demographic development of the region. Because of the remoteness and seasonal works of the river transport there is a serious problem of delivery of material and technical resources and of the consumer goods, the national economy has a lack of financial resources. The transport factor causes the major regional increase in cost of production, building, all types of services and as a in the cost of living. Before there used to be held number of measures to increase the settling of population in the region, such as, massive migrations, improvement of transport communication with the rest of the world,
grants for the citizens and settlers of the regions, establishment of various programs on economic improvement. However, as a result of current economic and social situation of the country, the main advantages of living in the region has come to zero - the high salary and good provision with food and industrial products, which attracted the population and made the inhabitants to resign with harsh nature and climate. The increase of the salary during the period of reforms did not compensate in full degree from inflation and the collapse of the infrastructure. Moreover, the citizens of the region have lost their monopoly to receive the maximal salary and as a result, the region lost its migration attractiveness. The current economical system of the country enables people to earn big salary in any region of the country. As a matter of fact there is being noted a major decrease of migration number for the last few years, as the migration mainly depends on social and economic situation. During 1992-1997 the negative balance of the migration has reached 180 thousand people, the total number of the population has decreased for 199 thousand people. The decrease of the population is determined by migration, which is 90%, whereas in the other parts of Russia it depends on the decrease of life expectancy, in spite of the fact that Yakutia and Chukotka have average life expectancy. The blunders of the Federal policy in North regions and the misreckoning of economic peculiarities have leaded to substantial decrease of living conditions of the majority of the citizens. Main Social- Economic Indexes North- East on the 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Specific gravity of the regions in % 1.34 1.42 1.35 1.31 1.26 1.23 1.21
Republic of Sakha 0.76 0.75 0.73 0.72 0.71 0.70 0.70 Magadansky region 0.26 0.25 0.22 0.21 0.19 0.18 0.17 Chukotsky... 0.10 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.07 0.0 Gross output of the region North- East on the 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.2 1.7 1.8 1.4 Republic of Sakha 0.9 1.5 1.5 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.2 Magadansky region... 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 Chukotsky..................... Main funds in the economics North- East on the 2.3 2.2 0.42 0.4 0.7 1.3... Republic of Sakha 1.2 1.3 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.8... Magadansky region 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.2... Chukotsky..................... Industrial products North- East on the 1.7 2.0 2.6 2.5 2.0 2.1 1.6 Republic of Sakha 0.9 1.3 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.3 1.0 Magadansky region 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.2 Chukotsky 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Agricultural products North- East on the 0.57 1.32 1.89 1.15 1.17 1.33 0.89 Republic of Sakha 0.15 0.95 1.30 1.10 0.77 0.83 0.79 Magadansky region - 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1
Chukotsky 0.12 0.07 0.09............ Investments of the main capital North- East on the 1.9 2.3 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.6 1.3 Republic of Sakha 1.9 2.3 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.6 1.3 Magadansky region 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 Chukotsky 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 Retail trade North- East on the 0.98 1.1 1.0 0.98 0.94 0.99 1.1 Republic of Sakha 0.46 0.33 0.43 0.36 0.26 0.21 0.21 Magadansky region 0.15 0.09 0.07 0.07 0.05 0.06 0.04 Chukotsky 0.55 0.42 0.49 0.5 0.43 0.43 0.41 Correlation of regional indexes in % with Russian Nominal income per person (1 month) Russian Federation 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Republic of Sakha 117 225 187 199 187 194 177 Magadansky region 150 285 349 225 180 173 156 Chukotsky..................... Average salary per 1 month Russian Federation 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Republic of Sakha 167 245 195 218 244 235 222 Magadansky region 183 260 314 270 234 212 210 Chukotsky 200 290 336 370......... Living wage for one
person (1 month) Russian Federation 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Republic of Sakha...... 223 238 222 238 227 Magadansky region... 258 291 297 216 214 210 Chukotsky..................... In 1997 correlation of the nominal income to the living wage per person was: in Russian Federation 2.2 times, Republic of Sakha 1.8, Mgadanskiy - 1.7 times. The level of poverty - number of citizens with income lower than living wage, (%): 20.8, 37.2, and 27.1. In 1997 the total level of unemployed in Yakutia reached 11.1%, in Magadansky region -15.3 % and 9 % over the country. Despite the fact that gross regional product of the North- East part of the country has insignificant specific gravity. For instance, in 1997 there had been produced gross regional product per person in the Russian Federation 18.2 million rubles, in Republic of Sakha - 30.1, in Magadansky region - 24.4 million rubles. Extractive industry has a leading role in the industry of Republic of Sakha and Magadansky region. (60-75% from the total amount of product), whereas Russia has 18-20% in average. The transport system of the region is also one of the most unique. The main transport systems are sea and automobile, however the railway transport system in Yakutia is developing more and more. The development of the common transport system for the North-East will lead to optimization of goods delivery. (North Sea Way, traffic road Yakutsk-Magadan, railways etc.) It is notable that the decrease if investments has taken place in the area of production industry. The amount of building cost comparing to the numbers of 1991 has increased 1-7 times. As a result the effectiveness of the investment activity of the region is evaluated as low. The main reason for the economic crisis in these particular regions is the weakening of the state control over the market
reorganizations processes and social-economic development of the region. II. The role and the perspectives of the mining industry branches development. The North- East part of the Russia has the first place in Russian Federation for the amount of investigated reserves, as well as for the amount of extracted products such as diamond, gold, tin, antimony and also rare metals. Bowels of the earth in the North-East region own major investigated reserves of ore and apatite. Below there are given characteristic of the main deposits of the natural resources and the potential possibility of their extraction in the future. 1. Diamonds. The main part of the investigated reserves of the diamonds of the Russian Federation (83%) and more than three part of the predicted reserves (38%) are found in the North-East Economic Region, namely in Republic of Sakha. The main part (62%) of the predicted diamond reserves are concentrated in Archangelsky and Irkutsky regions, in Krasnoyarsk area and in the europe of the Russian Federation, also in the Far-East. In the Republic of Sakha in 1996 there had been extracted 99.7 % of the diamond extraction over the Russia, or 30% over the world -for the amount of 1383,6 million $ ( 6513 billion rubles). In the terms of revenue Yakutia has the first place in the world, Botswana is second (1063 million $), South Africa is third (850), Angola (360), Zaire (342), Australia (337), Namibia (316 million $) and so on. In the near future the amount of diamond extraction will surely increase and reach approximately 1743 million $ by the end of 2000 year in other words, comparing to a year 1996 it will increase 1.26 times. Due to the complexity of the mining terms of the deposits exploitation, which is caused by the going over to the underground mining and decrease of the diamond content, there is expected a fall of the production profitability. In spite of all these, for the coming years Yakutia will keep its leading role in diamond extraction industry and
will remain one of the largest and highly effective branches of the non-ferrous metals. 2.Gold. The NEER heads the list of major gold miners over the Russia, providing currency fund with nearly half of the extracted metal. However, as a matter of steady increase of prices for the all types of material and services and waste of rich deposits, which provided 75% of the gold mining on the, the share of NEER has decreased in the amount of mining over the Russia. For the last few years the numbers show as following, from 1993-1996 it has decreased from 53.1% to 47.1%, as for the Far-East economic region - from 94.6 to 74.2 %. The gold mining industry of the NEER is facing number of problems, as well as Russia because of the industry s orientation to mine loose gold mainly. Most of the enterprises were proved to be unprofitable. The Gold Mining in the NEER Regions 1993 1994 1995 1996 Republic of Sakha 30.73 29.68 26.2 23.39 Magadansky 28.6 28.18 22.34 20.44 region Chukotsky 13.07 11.68 9.79 9.23 autonomous region Total in NEER 72.4 69.82 58.75 53.47 Total in the Russian Federation 136.23 131.93 122.18 113.63 Summarizing all the said above, we make conclusion that in order to recreate this branch of industry it is necessary to draw into the exploitation ore metals deposits. One of the most important terms for this is the attraction of both foreign and domestic investors. That is why it is advisable to establish in the NEER joint- venture enterprises on industrial exploitation of the ore metals.
Reference 1. «The North- East Economic Region of Russian Federation».Yakut Science Academy.Yakutsk 1998 2. «Review of the foreign and domestic economic activity of the Republic Sakha». Yakutsk 1997 3. «Structural reorganization of economics in the region» Yakutsk 1998 4. Statistical data of Republic of Sakha. Published by Science Academy of Republic Sakha Yakutsk 1997 5. Russian- English Business Dictionary. Moscow 96 6. Russian -English Dictionary. Litvinova A.V, Miller A.D etc. Moscow 1993