Industrial Policy and Transformation of the Consumer Market of the Russia’s Arctic Regions

The article considers the state of industrial policy in the subjects of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation both in terms of the status and dynamics of the regional consumer market and the mechanisms of state regulation and support. In the current situation of economic sanctions and external threats, the main problems of the consumer market are the following: rising prices, transformation of transport and logistics schemes, declining quality of goods and services, reduction of their assortment. Opportunities for solving them could include: location of production sites closer to the end consumer, inter-production and interregional cooperation and specialization, state regulation and compensation of fuel, energy and transport tariffs, infrastructure development. The article considers a number of generalized cases of consumer preferences formation depending on the goods belonging of local producers to this or that sector of the “Price x Quality” matrix. A number of systemic problems associated with the need for local producers to respond to the transformational changes to which the regional consumer market is exposed today has been identified. In order to create a set of support measures and effective tools, it is necessary to develop a system of long–term guidelines and strategizing in the field of regional industrial policy: on the one hand, it is integrated into the state vertical of industrial management, on the other hand, it takes into account territorial features, industrial potential and consumer expectations of the population in the regions. Based on the analysis, the authors propose to create a single document in each region of the Russian Federation with the working title “Fundamentals of regional industrial policy and consumer market development”.