Ecological business as the major direction of the regional development's ecologization

The transition of the regional economy to the model of the steady innovational development based on the efficient resource-consumption and on minimization of the anthropogenic influence of manufacturing processes and goods’ and services’ consumption, causes the importance and the necessity of the research of the problems concerning activation of the regional ecological business.

In Russia ecologically focused activity as a category for the first time was mentioned in the Law “About the bases of ecological business”, accepted at the plenary session of InterParliamentary Assembly of states-participants of the CIS (June, 2000); it includes industrial, research, credit and financial activity on producing goods and services, which states providing environment’s preservation and restoration and natural resources’ protection as the end use. The Law states legal persons and private businessmen as the subjects of ecological business; they carry out the activity on works’ and services’ production which is characterized by the nature protection purpose as the basic direction [4].

In our opinion, while defining the concept “ecological business” it is necessary to take into account a special role of business in the sphere of innovations (both technological and socio economic ones). The interrelation between business and innovations creates competitive advantages for the appearance at the existing and new markets. Therefore preventive measures become priority-driven while introducing ecological innovations providing influence minimization at each stage of the life cycle into manufacture. Business productivity is connected with the fast response to the social needs that is the most typical for the small-scale business’ enterprises.

Ecological business is a component of business as a whole. Hence, first of all it should response to the general principles of the market economy, provide stable profit, have the sated and stable market. Preferential crediting, budgetary asset’s allocation, exemption from the custom charges for the imported to the country high nature protection technologies and specialized equipment, exemption from tax payments to the added cost for some works etc. should take place. Among the factors furthering ecological business’ development first of all we should mention the following ones:

• •    toughening both international and home ecological standards;

• •    developing ecological markets of goods and services;

• •    strengthening consumers’ interest in getting ecological goods and services, and manufacturers’ interest in producing competitive production in view of its ecological component;

• •    perfection of the state regulation in the sphere of the regional ecological business.

The latter factor is significant for all stages of the ecological business’ development and of business’ development as a whole, and it is especially actual in the conditions of the global financial crisis when private sources in financing innovational projects have been reduced. However the increase of the government spending share for these purposes is planned. For instance, in 2008 1.8 billion rubles were allocated from the budget to the fund which gives permanent loans to small-scale business for innovational projects, and in 2009 this sum will be increased for 0.7 billion rubles. For the period 2009 – 2011 it is planned to allocate 10 billion rubles from the federal budget on financing young scientists’ support, on the starting innovational companies’ creation and on carrying out research work at the small-scale enterprises.

The analysis of the economically advanced countries’ experience proves: while activating the mentioned kind of activity fiscal and economic stimulus’ role in the field of the regional ecological development increases and the priority of the non-material actives’ share increases, among them are: ecological technological and socio-economic innovations, including the pure manufacture’s technologies, alternative power engineering, recycling and natural resources’ reuse; and business’ social responsibility growth. Besides, accumulation of means for ecological business activation, including the way of resources’ consolidation of the state and private business on priority directions; steady staff’s ecological education; activity coordination of all ecological markets’ participants; carrying out Government Purchases taking into account the ecological component; ecological business’ social importance and public status increase, etc. takes place. However it is problematic enough to define the borders between various stages of ecological business’ development; as a rule, ecologically focused firms don‘t develop equally at the regional, national and international markets.

The indicator allowing defining the regional ecological development’s degree by revealing a ratio between catching polluting substances and preventive measures is worth paying attention. In 2005 the share of expenses on preventive measures on the average in EU made 36% whereas in Great Britain, Belgium and Portugal the expenses for catching polluting substances and the expenses on preventive measures were equal. The expenses on preventive measures surpass the expenses on catching polluting substances in Czech, Finland and Cyprus; but as for Austria, only 10% of expenses for the environment’s preservation are connected with preventive measures [1, p. 26].

The new regional economic technological base’s formation, built upon advanced biotechnologies’ achievements, information science and nanotechnologies, will strengthen ecologically focused innovations’ role in socioeconomic development.

In Russia the formation of the business focused on the environmental problems, goes since the 80-s of the XX century. It concerns the enterprises making nature protection equipment and instrumentations, processing secondary resources and utilizing waste products, making non-polluting products, giving services of the nature protection purpose (ecological audit, ecological insurance, consulting, educational services in the field of the environment’s preservation, carrying out scientific researches in the sphere of ecology, etc).

At the Russian Federation Security Council’s session (January, 2008) it was marked, that “On the territories of Russia about 80 billion tons of firm waste products are being kept in dumps and storehouses… In Russia there are conditions for ecological problems’ solution, for example: both financial and economic opportunities, stimulus for introduction of nonpolluting technologies into industry, programs of alternative technology, and creation of the industries processing toxic wastes [5].

Consequently the creation of economically effective, normative-legal, and organizational conditions in the field of processing wastes, and also of the material base of wastes’ effective recycling should become one of the major strategic priorities in the sphere of the governmental regional ecological development in the Russian Federation.

The ultimate aim of ecological business is the creation of the stable system when not only the operational expenses connected with carrying out of works, rendering of services, but also the opportunity of investment into alternative and power-saving projects become possible. Therefore one of the major problems at the realization of the state strategy on the regional ecological development is cultivating civilized character of the credit and the financial systems and their harmonization with the effective normative-legal mechanism.

The increase in ecological goods’ and services’ demand is connected with ecological projects’ investment which realization is directed to the prevention (minimization) of the negative influence on the environment. An example of such realization is Russia’s Program of Investments into environmental improvement, which is a component of the Project on the environmental management, financed by the loan means of the Russian Federation Government from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The Executive Directorate, which takes place in the structure of the Center of preparation and realization of the international projects’ technical assistance, carries out the design-reinvestment cycle’s efficient management. It also carries out selection, assessment and preparation of the investment projects for financing, and also organizes attraction of the Russian and foreign commercial banks’, various funds’, other creditors’ and investors’ means to financing investment projects [3, p. 162].

As it was noted above, the state regulation’s perfection in the mentioned field of activity is the important circumstance contributing to ecological business’ development in Russia. It is caused by a number of reasons: market relations still being insufficiently used; difficulty for separate subjects of ecological business to accumulate means for ecologically directed investments; taking risk and long terms of paybacks on highly-spent ecological innovations; products, works and services of the considered sphere are not claimed enough at the moment as the environment’s preservation has not become the priority task of the corporate strategy of business.

The actual aspect from the point of view of the regional ecological business’ development is making up ecological ratings of ecologically focused enterprises’ activity in the conditions of realization of the stable development’s principles on the basis of competitiveness indicators’ definition in view of the ecological component. Such complex estimations haven’t been carried out yet in the Russian economy; however the experience of such estimations’ development and introduction at the Trading and Commercial Chamber of Russia is available [2, p. 111]. In our opinion, ratings can become the means of the public opinion’s transformation into the effective tool of the regional ecological development’s mechanism.

Innovational and socially-directed development of the regional ecological business provides the following things: inclusion of the ecological business’ development into the priorities of the regional and budgetary policy; formation of the mechanism of the manufacturers’ responsibility, adequate to the innovational way of development and formation of ecological business’ priority directions; assistance to the development of ecological business’ associations; support of the commercial and noncommercial organizations having developments in the sphere of ecological innovations through the system of government work; assistance to the ecological infrastructure’s development; formation of ecological information system

(research centers, exhibitions-fairs furthering ecological innovations, electronic databanks, including regional cadastres of wastes); ecological education’s development, continual ecological education for officials and managers; assistance to ecological advertising, ecological leasing, venture funds’ support; organization of inter-regional and international cooperation (realization of joint ecological projects, just like Finnish-Russian project “EcoPark as the development center of the sphere of processing wastes”).