The article is devoted to the issues of economic development of the Far Eastern territories of Russia. The Russian Far East occupies a rather advantageous economic and geographical position in Russia and the Asia-Pacific region since it borders with China, Japan and the United States. The purpose of the research is to determine the main directions for improving the economic development of the Far Eastern coastal territories, to compare the development of the coastal territories of the Far East, namely, the territory of Primorsky Krai with other countries, to provide a comparative analysis and draw certain conclusions. The area of the region makes up 36 % of the whole Russian territory while its population is only 4 % of the country’s population, which is due to severe weather conditions and weak economic development. The gross regional product to the Far East accounts for 5.7 % of the GRP of Russia. The paper features foreign experience in the development of coastal territories in the USA, China, Japan and Canada. It can be concluded that Russia significantly lags behind these countries in terms of GDP, exports, involvement in trade with the Asia-Pacific Region, and the sale of manufacturing products. A comparative analysis showed that the industrial structure of Russian coastal areas is similar only with those of Canada in raw material orientation of shipped goods, population of the port cities, whereas the indicators of the volume of Far Eastern cargo transportation in Russia lag behind all the countries examined. Apparently the main areas of development of the Far Eastern territories are: structural changes in the economy; attracting foreign investment in the creation of both mining, logging, and processing industries; development of transport infrastructure.
russian Far East, coastal territories, regional economy, investments, seaports, international projects
