Restructuring of the economy of resource-extracting regions of the Russian North and the Arctic as a necessary condition for sustainable territorial development

Abstract

The practice of developing foreign and Russian extractive northern and Arctic territories shows that many problems are based on the narrow-raw nature of the economy. A study of the dynamics of the sectoral structure of the oil and gas producing regions of the Russian North and the Arctic showed that the mono-industry orientation of the economy is growing, which makes the economic situation largely unpredictable and fraught with crisis phenomena. The article shows that already at an early stage of production it is necessary not only to predict, but also to take practical actions to solve the problem of the development of the territory. The authors proposed the main directions for the transition of the mining region from narrow-source specialization to diversified economy, including approaches to partial diversification and restructuring of the regional economy, the implementation of which will create the necessary prerequisites for sustainable integrated development of the region in the long term, including the time when raw materials will be exhausted . Diversification of raw materials industries is, first of all, expanding the sphere of activity in the extractive sector by creating deep processing industries for raw materials, as well as serving and auxiliary ones. Diversification should affect not only the raw materials industries, whose products are in demand on world markets, but also less profitable, but having a development base in the conditions of the raw materials orientation of the region. Restructuring of the region’s economy implies the emergence of new areas of specialization within the existing resource base, the development of high-tech and high-tech production, and the expansion of the service sector, including tourism, transport, computer science, communications.