THE TERRITORY OF PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT: NEW STATUS AND NEW POSSIBILITY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH OF RUSSIAN MONO-CITIES

A new program of particular cities and entire regions support through the creation of territories of priority development began to work in Russia. In theory, such status will give the municipal entities a serious mechanism for attraction of investors to their territories that will lead to the rapid growth of production, stop the out migration due to the creation of new workplaces and help to diversify the municipality economy releasing it from excessive dependence on a particular factory. The paper analyzes the successfulness of this initiative in today's reality. For this purpose, the author presents the history of reforming of special districts in the Russian Federation, determines the terms and conditions of the new program, which ensure the territories attractiveness for the investing, shows the differences between the TPD and the special economic zones (SEZ), gives some statistical data on the operation and financing of mono-cities in recent years, and analyzes the experts’ opinions regarding the viability, the “pros” and “cons” of the TPD.