Марголин Андрей

The article demonstrates that virtually all the professional community, regardless of the affiliation of its individual representatives to various political forces and/or schools of economic thought, shares the opinion that the Russian economy will not regain growth without a revival of investment activity. The launch of an investment based economic growth mechanism can lead to a multiplier effect. The base forecast of development of the Russian economy that is proposed today - is quite cautious. Along with the basic, a number of alternative scenarios are examined, and though on many issues the opinions of the experts differ dramatically, however, none of the proposed options does reject as impossible the aim of the growth of the domestic economy. A critical analysis of the various approaches to this problem is done by the author and concrete proposals for solving this problem are produced. The key issues that predetermine policy priorities and specific mechanisms for the revival of investment activity are outlined as follows: diagnostics of the investment activities barriers and factors favorable for the investment activity; determination of priority areas for investment; and identification of resource provision mechanisms for investment programs and projects implementation. Special attention is paid to a system of measures that, while requiring no budget investment in fixed assets, may contribute to an improvement of mutual trust in the state/business/civil society triangle and an increase in investment activity on the basis of public private partnership development and the use of the Bank of Russia capacity to solve the problem of creation of 'long and relatively cheap money' in the economy. Recommendations on the selection of investment priorities are based on conjunctive application of Liebig's Law and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

The key directions and current trends in urban agglomeration development are considered in the article. The undoubted competitive advantages of cities, convenient for self-realization, for the creative process of developing and implementing of the new products, processes, institutions and structures, are noted by the author. It is stressed that there is a new important indicator of the competitiveness of cities - the level of development of the "creative class” in the creation of the subject of competition between cities for key locations in the chain in the adoption and diffusion of innovation. It is shown that the inclusion of modern features in the creation of urban agglomerations in countries of the SCO is a prerequisite for ensuring their global competitiveness.

The article examines methods of evaluation of environmental projects that, if implemented, can have both financial and nonfinancial effects. The author demonstrates that it is nearly impossible to implement such projects without accommodation of long term interests of the state, business community and civil society.

A consideration of the main objects and directions of social investment. The criteria of evaluating the prospects for social investments and methods of their determination. Results of testing the proposed methodology.

The author demonstrates that the application of traditional criteria for the assessment of actual efficiency of state programmers may increase the risk of making nonoptimal managerial decision. The author considers the possible directions for their improvement are, using various techniques to adapt the PART (Program Assessment Rating Tool) methodology to Russian conditions.

В Программе социально-экономического развития Российской Федерации на среднесрочную перспективу (2006-2008 гг.), утвержденной распоряжением Правительства Российской Федерации (19.01.2006 г. № 38-р), указано на необходимость определения направлений развития территориально-производственных кластеров, а также проведения экспериментов по реализации мер кластерной политики на региональном и муниципальном уровнях. Важным документом, ориентирующим деятельность заинтересованных участников в направлении кластерных инициатив, может стать разработанный Министерством экономического развития РФ проект Концепции кластерной политики Российской Федерации (2008 г.).