Regional Consumer Market Development as Cross-Border Cooperation Enhancement Factor

摘要

The problems of consumer market development are characterized by a high level of importance and applicability, since its functioning affects both the life quality of the population and the economic development of the territory. Because of this, the national governments not only stimulate the study of problems of cross-border cooperation, but also make use of the obtained results in pursuing an active policy on the formation of both transnational and cross-border regions. For most of the cross-border territories, a relatively low level of economic development is characteristic, which is explained by the suppression of the border territories of the USSR due to the fact that the production was located in the distant regions of the country. The purpose of the particular paper is to study the development stages of the consumer market in the Volgograd region and to identify specific characteristics that determine the barriers and limitations of the development of trade with Kazakhstan (incentives and disincentives for the development of cross-border trade). It is dealt with the structure of retail trade in the Volgograd region; subjects of the consumer market of the region are identified; the key characteristics of the consumer market of the Volgograd region determining the region's participation in cross-border trade are formulated. Conclusions are drawn concerning the domination of objective structural disincentive factors that influence the regional policy of consumer market development in the Volgograd region.