Priority social and economic development areas as an economic development tool for the Siberian mono-settlements

The article is discussing the Priority Social and Economic Development Areas (PSEDAs) which are formed in the Siberian part of the Russian Federation (Siberian Federal District and the Baikal region). One of the goals for the PSEDAs formation is the diversification of mono-specialized towns and the reduction of their reliance on the city-forming enterprises. A typology of mono-settlements was carried out and the areas of activity that receive support within the framework of this mechanism in Siberia were presented.


Introduction
With the objective to increase the economic growth and the life quality of the population as tools for the Russian Federation's spatial economic development, a special investment-attracting legal activity regiment territories are being established. These territories were termed the Priority Social and Economic Development Areas (hereinafter PSEDA). By the end of 2020 within the Far-East Federal District (FEFD) a total of 22 PSEDA's had been established, as well as 14 in the Siberian Federal District (SFD), 28 in Privolzhskiy Federal District (PFD), 16 in the Central Federal District, 11 in the North-Western Federal District, 9 in the Ural Federal District, 4 in the Southern Federal District and 3 in the Northern Caucus Federal District [1]. Thus the process of the PSEDA establishment is actively underway in the Russia's federal districts. However, many of them are only at the beginning stages of operation. The objective of this article is to study the PSEDA organization experience in the Siberian part of Russian Federation; the object of the study is the settlements that have received this status. Due to the high relevance of the issue of Russia's mono-settlements' functioning and development it has become the subject of numerous works [2][3][4][5].
The stimulation of regional development through the formation of special platforms with certain preferential policies for the industrial development in the challenged regions is a characteristic tendency in many countries of the world. These tools of regional policy are export and production zones, entrepreneurial activity zones, technopolises, technology parks etc. A PSEDA is oriented at the development of local economy of a municipality (a town or a township) through the development of small business in order to resolve the local unemployment problem.

Data and methods
This work uses comparative and geographical analysis, statistical data analysis (the statistical information of the Siberian Federal District, information sources of the federal and regional authorities of the PSEDA status territories) as well as cartographic imagery.

Results and Discussion
The Siberia's mono-settlements that host the PSEDA's (figure 1, table 1) belong to the productionoriented territories with a very pronounced industrial bent.  The characteristic feature the PSEDA organization in the Siberian region is that this status is given to large-sized cities, such as Prokopievsk and Novokuznetsk. However most of the SFD's large-sized cities that received the PSEDA status would rather fall into the mid-and small-sized municipality category as their population starts at 9 thousand people (figure 2). The general problems of these settlements are expressed in the negative demographic processes (the natural and migration population decrease) as well as the citizens' low income (the small-sized cities are the most problematic in terms of the poverty level with the average per capita in the SFD in 2018 [6] registered at 25642 rubles per month, while the national average is 33178 rubles per month.    4 We can indentify both the leaders and those lagging behind among of these settlements based on their demographic indicators, their standard of living and labor resources. In the small-sized city group the leader is Sayansk. In this city the population virtually did not decrease compared to the other settlements in the group. There is also a however slight but positive population increase and a higher average monthly income. The settlements lagging behind here are Liniyovo and Abaza where the noticeable population decrease is underway due to both natural and migration causes (figure 3). In the mid-sized group the city of Novoaltaysk can be named, where there is a slight population increase as well as a positive inbound migration rate. The ones lagging behind in this group are the cities of Usolye Sibirskoe, Krasnokamensk and Anzhero-Sudzhensk with higher rates of both natural and migration population decrease.
The residents of the "Linevo" PSEDA are investors with projects in consumer industry aimed at building a fully-molded shoe and polymer shoe sole factory. It is also planned to build a rare and rareearth metal salts production plant. In the "Usoliye-Sibirskoe" PSEDA there was a timber fuels pellet factory built (the production of fuel granules and bricks made from timber processing waste materials invested by "Lime" LLC.), the production of machinery and equipment ("Usolmash" LLC.) as well as an ice-cream factory and an engineering equipment plant called "Mineral". There were 63 work places created at these plants [7]. The "Cheremkhovo" PSEDA has a registered resident producing soft and cabinet furniture. The "Sayansk" and "Abaza" PSEDAs plan to specialize in the creation of a deepprocessing wood production complex to develop the finish materials market. The Cheremkhovo, Abaza and Selenginsk PSEDAs have not seen any increase in the number of residents since their formation (having 2 residents each).
The «Linevo», «Novoaltaysk» and «Zarinsk» are the PSEDAs that are most active in terms of resident attraction. There was a leather plant built and some wood processing investors registered at the «Zarinsk» PSEDA. The leather processing plant determines the prospect of bovine cattle, pig, goat and sheep skin processing in becoming a segment in the Altay Territory's raw material resource base. The «Novoaltaysk» PSEDA has a registered resident specializing in the food industry (specifically a cheese and butter production plant was built here, invested by the «Pokrovskaya Syrovarnia» LLC.). Their products are sold in the big cities such as Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, with plans to expand the production and sales into other region of the Russian Federation. The "Anzhero-Sudzhensk" and «Yugra» PSEDAs in Kemerovo region will specialize in the industrial production and timber processing. The «Selenginsk» PSEDA specializes in machinery production (grader, scrapper, extraction, tamping or mining works); the «Krasnokamensk» PSEDA -in the cement and refined metallic stibium production.
When considering such an economic indicator as the shipment volume of independently made and delivered commodities, works and services in the processing enterprises in the PSEDA monosettlements created in 2016-2017 (table 2), we see a slight increase in Usoliye-Sibirskoe with new (while small) enterprises created here, while the shipment and delivery volume in Yugra, Anzhero-Sudzhensk and Abaza have decreased, compared to 2018.

Conclusions
The territories of advanced socio-economic development in the Siberian regions are being established in the mono-specialized municipalities (mono-settlements) and townships.
The prerequisites of PSEDA formation in mono-settlements are the existence of potential residents, the successful experience in implementing large investment projects, the resolution of infrastructural limitations and the absence of working preferential policies in a mono-settlement.
The status is primarily given to the small-and mid-sized mono-settlements with a complicated socio-economic situation. Small-sized Siberian towns with the population under 10 thousand people with insufficient number of investment projects are not receiving the PSEDA status at the moment.
The investment projects in the Siberian regions' PSEDA's have a wide range of industrial production activity: timber processing, food, consumer industries etc. Many projects have not yet been implemented and are at the beginning stages of infrastructure development. Currently, some production enterprises are working in PSEDA in Novoaltaysk and Usoliye-Sibirskoe, although the number of work places there is low. In case of a successful implementation of investment projects within this mechanism they can stimulate the development of processing plants, which will have a positive influence on the Siberian regions' economy.