Methodical bases of assessment of municipal structures’ investment potential

A major obstacle to the Russian regions’ balanced and sustainable development is the presence of significant disparities in key economic and social parameters, which to a large extent is due to the investment flows allocation. Investments directions are determined by the territories’ investment potential, the formation and use of which depends on a combination of economic and non-economicfactors. Therefore, an important place in the management of the region’s development is taken by the investment potential assessment allowing to create the information basis for the choice of regulatory influences in order to increase investment attractiveness, mobilize the territories’ resources and improve the quality of economic growth in the region and municipalities. This determined the purpose of the present article and the authors’ position on the justification of methodological approach to the assessment of investment potential the content of which is linked to the authors’ view about the nature of the concept. The research examines the existing approaches to investment potential assessment in terms of their advantages and disadvantages, the estimation algorithm is developed and tested in the case of the Vologda Oblast. The article presents the main results of the investment potential assessment in the context of the five private capacities (labor, production, logistic, financial and consumer); a typology of municipal areas in terms of investment potential and investment activity is created; territorial strategies of investment development taking into account territorial and branch aspects are proposed. Scientific novelty of the research is that the authors proposed the approach to assessing the territories’ investment potential which was aligned with the content of this notion and combines the advantages of integral and matrix approaches. The obtained results can be used by regional and municipal authorities in developing investment policy, formation of a system of organizational-economic mechanisms of investment processes activation in the region, as well as the organs of power and administration in the development of strategic documents defining spatial development for the future. The research presented in the article can be interesting for scientific discussions and used in research and educational activities.