Implementation of national projects of the “second wave” in the southern regions of Russia within reference points “Competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance”: economic and political analysis

Introduction. The study is devoted to the results of the implementation of regional projects by the federal entities of the Southern Federal District in 2019 within the reference points of competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance. Its peculiarity consists in the analysis of the interrelations between the achieved state ofcompetitiveness, sustainability, security, balance, the level of socio-economic development in a particular region, the quality of the implementation of regional projects in the context of the specifics of the regional management system, the existing relations between authorities, economic entities, civil society institutions. At the same time, along with the qualityoflife, it is important to achieve political stability and security. Methodology and methods. The research methodologyis based on the systemic paradigm of the relationship between the instruments of state regulation of regional development and the results of regional development within the reference points of competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance of regions, for which a databaseon the regional implementation ofnational projects was formed. In order toobtain quantitative characteristics, an integral scoring method of ranking with a correlation and regression analysis was applied. Analysis. The research showed that the higher the indicators of competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance, the better the quality of regional projects’ implementation. In turn, the reference points: competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance are higher in the regions with high values of gross regional product in general and per capita, as well as these federal entities have higher values of the achieved standard of living. Results. The correlation between efficiencylevel of territorial economic systems, assessed on the basis of indicators of competitiveness, sustainability, security, balance and the qualityof the results of national projects’ implementation was studied, which made it possible to determine that the higher the level of regional development, the better national projects are realized. The idea is justified that the existing form of regional projects’ implementation becomes a factor not smoothing, but strengthening the territorial differentiation, since regions with a better level of development and large gross regional product values due to regional projects receive an additional stimulus for further changes. The conclusion about the limited character of the approach that connects the issues of territories mainly with the lack of financial resources is made. Significant role of the institutional factor of regional development, especially risk-oriented management, in the implementation of national projects is shown.