In July 1987, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the Party Policy Bureau announced the extremely ambitious Far East Development Plan. The first stage of the plan--to be completed by the year 2000--is a nationwide project, indicating that Gorbachev has stressed the importance of the Far Eastern region.
The plan holds such weight that the total investment is scheduled to top 232 billion rubles. This figure is twice the amount thrown into the region in the last 15 years. And the plan emphasizes machine industries and production output increases of 3.9 times by the end of the year 2000.
Why are the Soviets promoting the Far East?
First, to date, the economy in the Eastern region has been supported by numerous materials from Western Siberia and the European area. The cost of transporting materials from the European region is so enormous that Siberia must develop independently to relieve the European region of its economic burden.
The second reason is that the natural resources of the Far East need to be developed to ease the Soviet Union's economic future.
Third, and not least important, the Far East area of the Soviet Union needs to be developed economically in order to strengthen the Soviet Union's economic relationship with the Pacific nations.
Much, however, remains to be accomplished. Hence, a reevaluation of the plan has recently been called for.
Originally, his project appeared doomed because of a labor shortage that makes the region unattractive to investment. Even assuming that the Soviets can increase their labor force in the Far East region, food and daily commodities will still fall short of the required level. Additionally, the lack of infrastructure, such as housing, schools, and hospitals, remains. Unless the infrastructure is built up, labor problems might pull the plan down, and creating the infrastructure involves a great expenditure of money.
To counteract the small population in the area, the Soviets have imported workers to the Siberian region. Soviet workers, however, are not willing to be tied to the job site for long periods and are inclined to move frequently. Needless to say, these tendencies lower morale, and consequently, many workers lack specialized skills. For example, it was reported that in 1987, 51.3 percent of all factory management had changed jobs over the last year.
Profitable coexistence
Meanwhile, the technological development of industry in the Soviet Far East has lagged far behind the development of the Asian countries. To cope with this serious situation, the Soviet Union has been compelled to gradually increase economic exchange with the Pacific and Western nations.
The first stage has been to initiate a closer economic alliance with the Asian communist countries, such as China, North Korea, and Vietnam. China is especially important: The Beijing summit of Chinese and Soviet leaders is expected to be
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