Regions competitive ability and its factors (based on Krasnoyarsk region)
As a consequence of the social economic changes conducted in Russia a region as a subnational entity was given the status of a constituent entity endowed with its own competence, rights, obligations and responsibilities, which are regularized by the Constitution of the country. Thus, conditions were created that helped regions to turn into beneficial owners of the conditions and results of manufacture, to receive the status of an efficient party in economic relations, which implies the formation of new features in multifunctional and multi-fold social economic system of the region, one of which is competitive ability. In general, we can state the absence of a clear common ground concerning the sense of the category competitive ability of the region as the interpretations of regional competitive ability have significant differences. Without minimizing the importance of different approaches in the interpretation of the above mentioned category, with a view of our investigation it is more acceptable to consider the competitive ability of the region as its ability to create conditions for stable development, which implies the ability of the region to create effective mechanisms to transform comparative advantages into competitive ones, and provide their development and improvement; the ability to improve the level of living or steady growth dynamics of economic good of the citizens of the region; the ability to create the habitat full of value. The formation of competitive ability is determined by the factors, which influence the process positively and negatively. It is thought that the territorys competitive ability is first of all determined by its geographical position and resource availability. Other regional advantages derive from the competitive ability of state administration (including the municipal one) and business competitive ability (including enterprises working in the region and the products they manufacture). We suppose that the factors of regional competitive ability should be grouped in three tacks: economic, social and ecological. Herewith economic competitive ability of the region is principally determined by the degree of economic development of the region, the degree of effectiveness of using the available resources and innovative activity; social competitive ability is determined by the degree of human potential development, that is by social standard of living of the region and its supportability with social services; ecological competitive ability implies that the region is capable of creating favourable habitat. In our research work we used a rating scaling technique, which enables one to relate real values of statistical indicators to optimal ones. We have Krasnoyarsk Territory as an object; similar objects are regions the Siberian Federal District comprises. We took into account the fact that indexes used for rating should not depend on the size of the regions and their population. Therefore, all particular characteristics of competitive ability were used in the calculation with the units of measurement, expressed in terms of relative numbers - person, part and pace ones. Moreover, we suppose that the calculation based on the data taken for one year can distort the real state, as real values of indicators can be found under the influence of arbitrary factors. Therefore, we used real data taken for three years as the basis for our calculation. The calculation of economic, social and ecological competitive ability of Krasnoyarsk Territory made us come to the following conclusions. 1. One can refer to competitive advantages such things as powerful natural resources potential and productive potential, effective resource usage, shown by high efficiency of labour and financial provision capability. 2. The key spheres of low and medium levels of competitive ability of Krasnoyarsk Territory are ecology - health care - demography; education - innovative activity; transport infrastructure.