‘Economic macro-regions’ to appear in Russia

The so-called ‘economic macro-regions’ may appear in Russia. The corresponding measure is provided in the project in order to improve regional policies developed by senators of the Federation Council together with the government.

According to sources in the government, now the document is being harmonized with the regional authorities. The head of the expert council of the All-Russian Council of local government Vyacheslav Timchenko said that the document does not imply association regions. "It discloses the main approaches to the formation of the budget and investment policy in the region, describes the division of powers among federal, regional and local authorities and gives more independence to the regions and municipalities’, Kommersant cites him as saying.

In addition to the creation of the ‘macro-economic’ document that stipulates a review of ‘financial relations among the regions and the federal center’, which may lead to changes in the budget and tax spheres.

In an interview with a ‘Vestnik Kavkaza’ correspondent Director at the Institute for Public Finance Reforms Vladimir Klimanov drew attention to the fact that the concept of ‘economic macro-regions’ is a traditional scientific term that came into our federal legislation in 2014. "The Federal Law №172 as of June 28th, 2014 "On the strategic planning in the Russian Federation’’ the concept of macro-region implies two, or more subjects of the Russian Federation. Special development programs or any other actions in respect of them are necessary in order to solve problems,’’ he reminded.

"Therefore, in the near future, the concept of macro-region will have a more specific normative content, as the development of macro-regions is traditionally accepted as a strategy in the form of federal districts. They are adopted in all federal districts except for the Crimean one. As for the idea of ​​a clearer fixing of the notion, it is likely that we will face restrictions, which are of a constitutional nature,’’ the economist said.

He added that the appearance of over subject territorial entities significantly depends on the political will.

In addition, he told that financial relations of regions and the center should be revised. "The reform of intergovernmental fiscal relations with regular intervals is being discussed for a long time. The matter is to what extent the federal center is ready to take important and responsible decisions in order to change the system. A lot of proposals announced by the expert community: from radical revisions of almost al the system, distribution of authorities, changes of forms of intergovernmental transfers, which are provided to the purely technical principles. For example, the change of the distribution of certain types of subsidies, grants and so on. Therefore, the proposals, expressed by senators, deputies and other politicians, certainly deserve a review and discussion, but at the same time we should understand that this is only general proposals, which are in the house of long-ongoing debate in the scientific and expert circles,’’ Vladimir Klimanov summed up.