Drivers of the Regional Economic Growth and the Problem of "White Elephants" of the Russian Olympic Megaproject "Sochi 2014"

Inna V Mitrofanova,Victoria V Batmanova,Elena G Russkova,Ekaterina А Shkarupa

doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p267

Abstract

For Russia the Olympic megaproject Sochi 2014 became the largest international investment and construction project and the country has not seen similar events during several decades. The mission of the Olympic megaproject went far beyond the limits of getting profit from the Olympic games organization and the creation of a favourable image of Russia in a global social and economic space. It included the build up of global competitive advantages of the Black sea zone of the Southern macroregion of Russia in such spheres like tourism, hospitality and entertainment industry, recreation and sports business. However the impact of the Olympic games on the economic development of the territory where they took place would be evident only after 3 or 5 years and the economic effect of investments would be displayed after ten years and more. The authors of the article study the problem of the post project use of the Olympic constructions. Some of them will serve as drivers of the regional economic growth and others like so called white elephants will only generate losses. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p267

Highlights

The state has the right to consider as a successful one a reform that leads to long term capital intensive projects
For the complete objectivity the authors of the paper set the goal to study another side of the Olympic megaproject "Sochi-2014" consisting in the after use study of the Olympic constructions erected in the Krasnodar kray
– they are based on the combination of the sectoral, territorial and program planning; – they must reflect all the stages of the triad “economy – nature – population” beginning with theoretical and methodological premises of the preplan research and investigations and finishing with real production processes; – they encourage the development of the mechanism of the integrated non-departamental expertise of large scale correlated projects, being part of a megaproject; – they have the uniqueness of temporal and special frontiers within which the problems of the territorial development having a “program nature” that can be solved most (Altshuler, Luberoff, 2003; Mitrofanova, Batmanova, Zhukov, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

The state has the right to consider as a successful one a reform that leads to long term capital intensive projects. Megaprojects are the investments projects of a large scale (more than 1 billion $) having a global character (independently from the territorial level of realization). The objective of the research set by the authors is to make a prompt analysis of ambiguous economic results of the realization of the Olympic megaproject "Sochi -2014" as the impact of development of Olympic games on the economic development of the territory where they took place will display only after 3 or 5 years and long term effects will be visible only after 10 years and more. For the complete objectivity the authors of the paper set the goal to study another side of the Olympic megaproject "Sochi-2014" consisting in the after use study of the Olympic constructions erected in the Krasnodar kray. Some of which will unquestionably become drivers of the economic growth, others or so called "white elephants" will constantly generate losses

Methods

Results

Conclusion