Evolution and Implementation of the TPK conceptin the postwar Soviet Union

<p>In the Soviet Union, since the early l970s the concept of territorial production complex (TPK) has occupied an important place in the regional planning and regional development policy. A number of TPK projects have been actually implemented. Though drastic changes in political and economic systems, which are closely related to the regional planning and regional policy, were recently taking place in the Soviet Union, the reasons to examine the TPK concept at present can be pointed out as follows. Even under the renewed systems, at first, the TPK can be expected to be worth examination in considering regional development;and secondly,the new locational policy of economic activities will be considered on the basis of the formed spatial distribution of the productive forces which were partly reflected by the formation of TPKs. The purposes of this paper are both to investigate the conceptual evolution of the TPK in the Soviet Union from the l950s to the late 1980s and to clarify socio-economic consequences which the implementation of the TPK concept has brought about, through the analyses of Soviet literature concerned and some published statistics. The results are summarized as follows: l) Since the l950s, the TPK concepts were still discussed variously, meanwhile the modeling research to optimize TPK formation was also being carried out. Furthermore, even after the first half of 197Os, when the TPK was officially recognized as a practical planning tool and TPK projects were promoted in earnest, the discussion on TPK concept was continued. This fact shows that TPK projects were begun to be developed without a full preparation including the establishment of the TPK concept. Then it is in 1980 that "Methodological Instructions" for the planning of TPK was approved and published by USSR Gosplan. On the other hand, the TPK concept that spread not only inside but outside of the Soviet Union was characterized by the practical formation of TPKs and at the same time it reflects a specific kind of TPKs in terms of their position in national planning system and the significance and aims of their formation. 2) Within the TPK area, enterprises or industries under basically different administration are intended to be technologically and economically linked with each other on the basis of joint and mutual use of local resources and infrastructure. Moreover, the planning, construction and operation of the TPK are to be conducted according to a program. In this way the TPK is to reduce the expenditure in their formation and operation. The principal aim of the TPK project is not to develop a self-sufficient economic zone. As the formed and forming TPKs contain not only the industries related to the exploited energy and raw material resources but the productive and social infrastructure, TPK project can be described as an intermediate positition between the most complex development and the most specialized one. 3) Under the centralized sectoral economic system, the establishment and implementation of the TPK concept not only increased the need to introduce partially regional planning and control system but also enhanced the significance both of spatial aspects in social and economic development plans and of regionalism in the plan-making and the running of regional economies. 4) The TPK concept, in which productive activities were originally key elements, has been extended in the process of its evolution through the addition of elements such as provision of social infrastructure and environmental protection. In the TPK areas, however, not only the inadequate provision of social infrastructures but also the deterioration of natural environment and natives' life can be found. Therefore it is necessary to improve on the each step of planning, construction and operation of TPKs and to enrich the TPK concept itself. 5) The TPK was not defined as a confirmative concept for a long</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>