Natural resource-based industries of the Far East: new drivers of development

The goal of the paper is to study the manifestations of institutional innovations currently being implemented within the framework of a new development model for the Far East economy in the region’s natural resource-based sectors; another goal is to study the areas of Russian-Chinese cooperation, which affect the current state and prospects of development of these industries. The study is based on the theories of resource-based economy, and spatial economy, including regional economy. The main scientific problem raised in the article is at the junction of the studies related to the evaluation of public policy efficiency, system effects of resource projects and their localization at the regional level under the influence of foreign economic factors. The novelty of the research consists in the fact that it formulates and implements the research task of joint consideration of institutional innovations and external factors determining the potential for the development of natural resource sectors in the Far East; thus, the research helps obtain new scientific knowledge in the field of spatial economics. The mineral resources, fishery and forest complexes are the objects of our study; they have been chosen due to the economic value of natural resources that form the basis for these industries. The article discusses the tools and forms of state support for the new development model of the Far East and their impact on the competitiveness of the industries selected in the framework of this model; the paper also analyzes how the economic agents working in these industries actually react to the preferential innovations. We show that the institutional decisions adopted in accordance with the new development model of the Far East begin to produce tangible results in the territories of the region. We consider new directions, mechanisms and forms of participation of Chinese state-owned and private business in the mineral raw materials, fishery, and forest complexes, and also the consequences of this participation both for the sectors themselves and for the economy of the Far East. The prospects for further research are associated with the task of measuring the positive and negative effects of the implementation of federal institutional tools of the new development model of the Far East for the economy of specific territories in the natural resource-based industries.