Economic growth of Sevastopol: problems and opportunities

The article traces the socio-economic development of the city of Sevastopol. Such aspects as forecasting economic growth taking into account the peculiarities of territorial development, generating regional socio-economic scenarios for determining the trajectory of regional development need closer consideration to control economic growth in the systems of anticipative and regular management of the region. Assessment and analysis of the indicators of economic growth and of the social capital is very important for Sevastopol. The goal of the study is to find problems and opportunities of economic growth of Sevastopol based on analysis of indicators of socio-economic growth using the common spatial factorial model for forming the strategy of socio-economic development of the region. The analysis was performed based on the data of the regional authorities, of Rosstat and Sevastopolstat. According to macroeconomic indicators, Sevastopol does not occupy leading positions, therefore, competitiveness is low. Experts regard the region as having an insignificant investment potential at moderate risk, which is mainly because of sanctions. Nowadays the city is subsidized, funds from the state budget are mainly spent on infrastructural development. The following branches have a potential for regional growth: industrial production connected with repairs and service of ships and support vessels of the Black Sea Navy Fleet; production of special marine engineering; transport and logistics activities including the sea port, the railway, motorways; tourist industry and related directions (hotels, restaurants), trade; winemaking; food industry; fishing; device engineering and electric power industry. Potential locations of economic growth include the industrial park under-construction, a number of clusters including the IT cluster (technopark IT-Crimea), the experimental winemaking cluster Sevastopol, the Balaklava cluster (tourism and the harbor), shipbuilding and shiprepairs where startups can develop along with enterprises using innovative technologies. Sevastopol is a region with favorable climate, geopolitical position, historical past and a complex of promising branches that might be sources of its future economic growth.