Economic Transformation of Coal Mining Single-Industry Towns in China and Russia: The Experience of Pingxiang and Vorkuta

The problem of spatial development does not lose its relevance for large countries such as Russia and China. Single-industry towns deserve special attention. Making up a significant part of the country’s economy, they are subject to numerous risks, many of which have already been realized. In particular, the risks manifested themselves in those cities where the economy is focused on coal mining, the availability of which began significantly reducing. The aim of the work is to propose scientifically substantiated promising directions of transformation of the economy of single-industry towns specializing in coal mining. We chose Pingxiang in Jiangxi Province of China and Vorkuta in the Komi Republic of Russia as examples. The choice of the cities is conditioned by the fact that coal mining will cease in them in the next 15 years. The article retrospectively analyzes their development and investigates their current state. As a result of the work, we proposed directions for the transformation of the economy of the cities under consideration: for Pingxiang, the preservation of industrialization trends, the development of cross-border interregional cooperation between Hunan and Jiangxi provinces in terms of creating logistical infrastructure, strengthening the development of agriculture and creating green infrastructure, ensuring the development of culture and tourism, and modernizing consumption; For Vorkuta, it is the development of the following economic activities: synthesis of artificial diamonds, production of new types of products from coal, extraction of useful elements from overburden dumps, as well as the development of the R&D sector, creative industries and tourism. Scientific novelty of the work consists in substantiating strategic priorities of the development of single-industry towns based on the existing prerequisites and competitive advantages of the territory.