No 3 (2017)

The economic security of the regions is the most important factor for the sustainable development of the state. At present, the differences in the development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of basic social and economic indicators have reached the critical level. The priority task of ensuring the economic security, in this case, is the creation of the regional mechanism for ensuring economic security, the main functional part of which is the elimination of dangers of regional level.

The paper considers the assessment of the economic security of Samara region based on generalized indicators of social and economic development of the region. In particular, the indicators in the following aspects are considered: economic, social, and innovative. The analysis is based on the system of indicators of economic security of the region. The indicators developed by the Russian scientists are considered the main indicators of economic security. To be an object of the analysis, Samara region was selected as the region indicating fully the tendencies of contemporary development of Russian economy. The authors carried out the comparative analysis of the economic security indicators of the region under the study with the indicators of the Volga Region Federal District and the all-Russian indicators. The period selected to be studied (2013–2015) involves the time before and after the introducing the economic sanctions against Russia.     

The analysis showed that, currently, the economic security is not provided sufficiently in Samara region. Moreover, the main issues of ensuring this indicator are identified. The comparative analysis of the economic security indicators shows that the indicators of Samara region have very few differences with the indicators of the Volga Region Federal District and the all-Russian indicators.

The agroindustrial complex of Russia is the advanced branch of the economy due to the favorable market environment developed after the imposition of sanctions against some food importers. Such situation promoted the growth of large agricultural holdings. However, the variability in markets requires the measures for prediction possible directions for economic development and preparation of enterprises. In this case, business mechanisms of agricultural holdings adaptation implementing these measures fail to achieve the optimum effect that makes topical the issues of their improvement.

Using the example of large agricultural holding of Krasnodar region, the paper analyzes the peculiarities of organization and management structure; gives the minimum required list of functions of business mechanism of adaptation, which is compared with the mechanism actually implemented within the whole agricultural holding and at one of its subsidiary enterprises; detects the disadvantages of this mechanism; analyzes the weak points requiring the adjustment and suggests the directions for the improvement.  

The author proves the application of the project flexible management tool – Scrumban technique based on Agile principles and intended for the development and implementation of the adaptation and development projects, which will allow the agricultural holding to react quickly and flexibly to the changes in the economic environment. The application of Scrumban technique within the “Parus Agro Group” agricultural holding allowed designing and implementing the missing as well as improving the existing elements of business mechanism of adaptation of the enterprise; developing the adaptation plan for the holding’s subsidiary enterprise to adapt to the market adverse change to improve the efficiency of its activity; mastering the methods of adaptation projects development and the methods of selection, formation and organization of cross-functional project teams’ activity.

The paper considers the issues of improvement of mechanisms of government support of investment activity and formation of competitive investment environment at the regional level. The authors evaluate the advantages of the application of the project management tools when solving tasks related to the government support of investments and the enhancement of business environment at the level of the RF territorial entities. The goal of the paper is the study of the project management tools in the context of their use for the solution of the problems of investment activity promotion in the regions and elimination of the excess administrative barriers. The authors consider the set of actions based on the target models of regulation and enforcement and aimed to eliminate regional differences in the level of development of business environment and tools of government support of investment activity. The paper presents the models characterizing the organization structure of the interdepartmental project on the formation of the competitive investment environment in Samara region with different kinds of powers of regional project office (RPO). The conclusive result of the analysis is the selection of an optimal model that suggests having an RPO in the structure of Ministry of Economic Development, Investments and Commerce of Samara region. According to this model, the administrative barriers will have the downtrend that will have a positive effect on the whole economy of the country. The most optimal model of investment activity regulation at the regional level is the project-oriented model. Its application allows aiming the project management at the provision of effective regulation of investment activity and involving each level of regional management hierarchy in this process. The basis of this system is the project office, the activity of which is aimed at the formation of single institutional environment and creation of the conditions providing the sustainable functioning of the investment sphere of the region.

The application of solar radiation for producing energy is the hot topic and a worldwide trend. The plants converting solar energy to thermal and electric energy should become some day the main generating capacities, in this case, the use of fossil fuel can be reduced considerably. Many regions, in particular, the Republic of Crimea, are located in the zones suitable for the development of solar power. Complex producing of thermal and electric energy used simultaneously in the units combining thermal solar collector and the photoelectric generator is of special interest. Such units allow improving considerably the efficiency of transformation and application of energy coming from the sun. At the same time, considering different geographic and climate irregularities of the location of different regions, justification, and procedure of application of solar collectors with photovoltaic and thermal cells raise many questions. With regard to the conditions of the Republic of Crimea and based on the model of calculation of active solar capacities of the peninsula cities, the authors considered the possibility and reasonability of allocation of thermophotovoltaic helioprofiles mounted into the roofing material on the roofs of buildings and constructions and estimated their energy potential. In the result of the studies carried out with regard to the conditions of Sevastopol, the authors pre-calculated technical and economic indicators and determined the power characteristics of heliosystems. In the calculations, natural and stochastic changes of coming sunlight were considered. It is determined that the combined thermophotovoltaic helioprofiles mounted into the roof of buildings will allow achieving considerable economy of materials, areas and operating costs and increasing general efficiency of the whole system of the power supply of the object under the study.

At present, export of investment abroad is gaining increasing significance for the Chinese economy – the world’s largest economy. The issues related to the activities of Chinese investors abroad remain important given that the Chinese economy is in constant search of ways to gain new positions in the global market. The purpose of the research paper is to identify the main features of the Chinese investors’ activities in foreign markets and their implications for the modern global economy. According to the data shown in the paper, the volume of Chinese direct investment has grown from almost a zero point to more than $100 billion over the past decade. Developed countries of Europe and North America are becoming increasingly attractive investment directions for Chinese investment. The sectoral focus of investments has a multi-vector character. Public authorities are involved immensely in the process of investment abroad. The research leads to the conclusion that the main element of China’s international economic strategy is the plan to strengthen the impact on the development of the global economy in the following key directions: restructuring the world economic infrastructure through active promotion of the “One Belt – One Way” strategy; changing the world monetary and financial system and the entry of China into the list of its major actors; increasing the volume of export of Chinese capital abroad with orientation toward developed countries and strategically appealing sectors of the innovation-oriented economy; strengthening the role of private investors in the export of Chinese capital. All these changes are impossible without active government support the main directions of which are represented in this paper.

The satisfaction of public demand for the basic food products is the important characteristic of the social feeling of the population of the region. Meat industry takes the special place among the food industry branches. The goal of the research is the integral assessment of satisfaction of Primorsky Krai population with the quality of meat products offered by trade organizations of the region. To assess meat products consumers satisfaction, the author carried out the consumers’ survey in various cities of Primorsky Krai (sample n=600). The research showed that, in recent years, the tendency towards the deterioration of quality-to-price ratio of meat products emerged in the regional market of Primorsky Krai. Consumers experience major concerns about the fact that the products may contain nonnatural and harmful for health “chemical” ingredients. According to the results of the survey, the evaluation of the level of awareness on the safety of consumed meat products. The author studied the level of interest of the consumers in the information about the meat products ingredients and the level of confidence to the information given by the manufacturers. To improve meat products quality, the development of the effective mechanisms of quality control is necessary. One of the directions of meat products quality improvement is the wide public involvement. To ensure feedback, it is necessary to use the advanced information technologies.