Russia and Eurasia at the Crossroads : Experience and Problems of Economic Reforms in the Commonwealth of Independent States

This last century of the second millennium has compressed human history to such an extent that whole ages of engineering, economics, social politics and the humanities have been accommodated in decades or even years. Mankind has matured and applied its cognitive and creative genes to advance science and to internationalise future goals, including the vital goal of sustainable social development. However, having no control over the new pace of history, twentieth-century civilisation has faced global cataclysms of a frequency and depth unprecedented and inconceivable in the past millennia. Among the recent "crises" to be "resolved" in the third millennium is disintegration of the Soviet Union, the biggest state and third largest population in the world. Regretfully, the pace of change in the Soviet Union had been slower than the rates of reform elsewhere. Attempts at economic redecorating instead of radical market-oriented reforms failed. In Soviet society, general discontent with the progress of perestroika in the 1980s provoked the "child complacency" syndrome that is typical of a young mind contemptuous of any adult action: it is convinced that things could have been done much better and much quicker. With the new millennium approaching, the Soviet Union gave way to 15 new states ridden with both inherited and acquired economic, political and social maladies. It is common knowledge, however, that childhood epidemics are short-lived. The shock waves from Russia that rocked global financial markets in the autumn of 1998 were proof that the process of transformation in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is in deep trouble. In this book, a team of high-ranking members from the CIS administration and economic experts analyses the market-oriented transformations as well as specific features of the market evolving in the 12 states. Using a wide range of statistical data, the authors deal with industry, agriculture, the military-industrial complex, the scientific and social sphere, finance and investment, market infrastructure, international trade, as well as other aspects. Based on the experience of reforms in other major economic regions, they develop a centrist concept for sustainable development and economic integration that offers the possibility of overcoming the current problems. Provides Western readers with an insider view of the present situation and a wealth of valuable statistical data A team of high-ranking members from the CIS administration and economic experts analyses the market-oriented transformations as well as specific features of the market evolving in the 12 states. Using a wide range of statistical data, the authors deal with industry, agriculture, the military-industrial complex, the scientific and social sphere, finance and investment, market infrastructure, and international trade. They develop a centrist concept for sustainable development and economic integration that offers the possibility of overcoming the current problems. Provides Western readers with an insider view of the present situation and a wealth of valuable statistical data. Front Matter....Pages I-IX Introduction....Pages 1-4 The CIS in the World Economy....Pages 5-37 General Goals of Economic Reforms....Pages 38-79 Denationalisation, Privatisation and Economic Security in the CIS Countries....Pages 80-142 Forming Market Infrastructure....Pages 143-197 Towards a New Structure of Public Economy....Pages 198-251 Changes in the Agroindustrial Sector....Pages 252-284 Macro-Economic Policies in CIS Member States....Pages 285-352 Micro-Economic Basis of Reforms....Pages 353-383 CIS Countries on the way to Regional Economic Integration....Pages 384-484 Back Matter....Pages 485-496