Shipbuilding industry of Russia: State and problems of strategic development

Shipbuilding is a major labour-, capital- and technology-intensive industry for Russia providing products for water transport, offshore and onshore construction, state defence procurement programme, mining, fi shing, etc. A current crucial task to identify factors preventing the long-term development of shipbuilding in Russia and analyse government support measures aimed at mitigating them. The paper examines the state of the shipbuilding industry in Russia and related strategic public management issues. The materials used include regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, official statistics, and works by Russian scholars. The study uses scientific methods such as formalization, visualization, comparison, synthesis, induction, and generalization. The paper considers both global and domestic trends in shipbuilding and its main participants. It identifies and validates both endogenous (ineffective management; obsolescence and physical depreciation of equipment and fleet; instability of the industry as a socio-economic system; inadequacy of the number and capacities of existing enterprises to the growing demand; use of outdated shipbuilding technologies; increase in the key interest rate, and inflation processes) and exogenous (sanctions policies of unfriendly countries; deglobalization processes, the increasing numbers of international intermediaries, changes in international logistics and supply chains) factors that hamper the development of shipbuilding in the country. The authors analyse the state strategic instruments for the regulation of the industry in the long and medium term, including their drawbacks, and assess the level of financing of the subject sector from the national budget. The analysis has led the authors to the conclusion that endogenous factors prevail over exogenous ones, hindering further strategic development of the subject industry. In practical terms, the study puts forward a number of activities intended to mitigate the negative internal factors identified. These specifically include amending the Law “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation”; using more rigorous measures to monitor and control spending of special-purpose funds and ensure efficient achievement of strategic goals and objectives; and increasing regulation for providing full responsibility of top executives of state corporations for failures and non-achievement of long-term goals and objectives defined earlier.

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