Involvement of experts during creation of strategic planning documents in subjects and municipalities of the Russian Federation

Questions of Russian regions development become more and more urgent. The balanced and sustainable social and economic development of territorial subjects of the Russian Federation and Russia in general is impossible without the accurate reference points reflecting the desirable image of future in the long term. In regional government the main role of this image forming, determination of the priority directions and specific purposes is carried out by strategic planning therefore efficiency of all management activity depends on its quality.

With respect thereto in June, 2014 the Federal law No. 172-FZ "About strategic planning in the Russian Federation" was adopted which establishes the legal basis of strategic planning in Russia. According to the law, the strategic planning documents having accurate legal status and developed at the level of the territorial subject of the Russian Federation or the municipality are the strategy of social and economic development, the forecast of social and economic development for the medium-term and long-term period, the actions plan on strategy implementations, the state and municipal programs etc.

Thus, from the law coming into force regions and municipalities, in fact, became obliged to develop strategic planning documents and to address to experts services in the field of strategic management – consulting companies, institutes, analytical centers – on the basis of the conclusion of state contracts for carrying out research works on results of an open tender. Actually during two years of operation of the law the group of companies in the state consulting sphere which gained extensive practical experience in regions and municipalities strategic planning documents development was already created, continue to enhance approaches to their development and take an active part in their implementation. Formation of a new industry in the sphere of strategic management provided maintenance of high quality requirements of works and to professionalism of their contractors.

The single unified structure isn't established as there are objective distinctions between subjects and municipalities of the Russian Federation on geographical location, resources availability, economy structure, the current level of social and economic development and so forth, in methodical recommendations about development of social and economic development strategy as main strategic planning document. Thus, experts in course of strategic planning document development perform of individual structure formation which reflects the features of a current status of the region, expected results of its development and tactics of effective objectives achievement.

However there are certain recommended blocks of works which should be done when forming strategy. So, at the initial stage experts develop the analytical block which assumes the economic and social situation of the region or municipality complex analysis carrying out including determination of its place in the macro region, Russia and the world economy, objective assessment of the main social and economic development parameters, comparative estimates of competitiveness and investment appeal, strengths and weaknesses analysis, opportunities and threats of development (SWOT analysis), determination of the main problems. At this strategy development stage experts address to various sources of statistical information, conduct population surveys and business representatives opinion research concerning problems and strategic development directions.

Further strategy goal-setting block follows conducted on the basis of the carried-out analysis experts should determine strategic priorities, purposes, tasks of development and expected resulting effects. In the scenario block experts shall report development results of the most probable scenarios (or alternative options) development in the set conditions, forming of target parameters and their forecast values, and also to make a choice of the target scenario depending on development priorities. Also as a part of strategy the section in which the main mechanisms and instruments of effective objectives achievement with terms parameters and necessary financial resources are designated is usually provided.

At all development documents stages close work with executive bodies and specially created working group is conducted. The prepared draft documents are submitted for public discussion which involves citizens, representatives of business, labor unions, public, scientific and other organizations. Received marks and offers are considered by the executive authority responsible for the document development, and then the document is adjusted by the contractor taking into account constructive criticism. After final version documents forming the strategic planning is subject to obligatory state registration in the federal state document register of strategic planning.

Thus, strategic planning documents development is labor-intensive, expensive and long process: for example, strategy development for the territorial subject of the Russian Federation, as a rule, takes about a year and can cost from several million to tens or even hundreds of millions of rubles. It should be marked that availability and implementation of qualitatively developed strategic planning documents created by means of the involved experts allows not only to increase efficiency of public administration, but also to attract financial resources from various sources on target programs implementation, including in the form of subsidies that allows to prove the target funds expenditure. At the same time obvious benefit from the strategy availability is received not only by the specific subject, but also by the regions adjoining to it, due to infrastructure development and financial, labor and other resources attraction.