The Global Emerging Market in Transition: Articles, Forecasts, and Studies

Daghestan–Mangyshlak: The Effectiveness of Interregional Collaboration

DAGHESTAN–MANGYSHLAK: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERREGIONAL COLLABORATION (with Z. Uzbekov) The Caspian Sea has a substantial ecological and economic impact on the social and economic development of the Northern Caucasus and western regions of Kazakstan. This is due to the mineral resources in the pre-Caspian zone which are of countrywide significance . Suffice it to say that the oil and gas deposits in Mangyshlak, and the development of the mineral resources in the pre-Caspian mining areas in Zhetybai and Uzen in Kazakstan, the greater part of which is already under way, and others will be industrially mined. This zone supplies most of the country’s needs for sulfate sodium, potassium, magnesium, table salt, and other valuable raw materials. Here one finds virtually boundless reserves of limes and brines. The planned, consistent development of the area’s mineral resources has led to the emergence of a regional industrial area around the Caspian Sea. Its centers are Shevchenko and Guryev in Kazakstan , Astrakhan and Makhachkala in RSFSR (Russian Federation), Baku, and Krasnovodsk in Turkmenia. Daghestan and Chechen-Ingush , the western regions of this area, with a population of more than 5 million, have a relatively abundant workforce, something extremely unusual for the country. But these regions are far from the main centers of intensive economic development in the Caspian Sea area. The Caspian separates these regions from the rich Astrakhan condensed gas deposits. On its eastern shores are the starting points of such large infrastructure connections as the Uzen–Kulsary– Guryev–Kuibyshev oil main and the Uzen–Beinau gas main. The In The Socioeconomic Regional Development on the Basis of Increased Scientific and Technological Progress (STP) (Moscow: The Institute of the Economy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1987), pp. 75–82. daghestan–mangyshlak 431 latter brings natural gas to the oil main linking Central Asia with the central areas. Nevertheless, the key economic benefit of the Caspian Sea, its transport potential, is inadequately exploited. Currently, only ferry services exist, and these are much located more to the south, away from the mutually attractive regions: Daghestan with its excessive workforce and western Kazakstan where manpower is at a deficit. Running parallel to the Baku–Krasnovodsk ferry line is another line linking Baku with the Turkmen town of Bektash, which is only a short way from Krasnovodsk. Investment in this transport complex was, in our opinion, unjustified. As a result, the development of mineral deposits in the area has declined. According to scientists and other specialists, these and other processes are irreversible, and this poses a threat to the very existence of ‘‘Karabogazsulfat’’ and Bektash, the town of chemical workers. Given the present economic situation in the area and the prospects for the development of its industry, the Krasnovodsk–Baku ferry line has no future. This is due, no doubt, to the surplus of railway transportation in Central Asia. At present, there is a risk that less than fully loaded high-capacity ships will be used on a regular basis. In the first half of 1985 alone, 43 runs from Krasnovodsk were made without a single car on board, and 27 runs were made with only half a load. Nevertheless, new, well-equipped ferries were delivered to the area. The ineffective Baku–Bektash ferry line mirrors a larger countrywide economic problem, namely, the inadequate justification for large-scale economic projects and decisions. Estimates show that, from the point of view of regional effectiveness and national economic significance, this ferry line should yield to a line linking Makhachkala with Aktau, the seaport of Shevchenko . In the next five-year period the importance of the Schevchenko –Makhachkala ferry line will increase dramatically. Moreover, the construction of a railway line from Krasnovodsk to Nizhny Uzen is a vital need, ensuring a link with Shevchenko along the eastern coast of the Caspian. This ferry line would provide the shortest route for trains hauling coal and other freight from Karaganda to Siberia and the industrial centers in Trans-Caucasia and the south of European Russia. Hence, economic priorities demand it. The sooner the line finds its way onto the country’s national economic plan, the greater the economic effect for the country, and the greater the pas- 432 the emerging market of russia senger comfort. To organize the work of regular ferry transport for railway freight cars, construction of a pier in Makhachkala is essential . This would permit the transportation of vegetables and fruit from...