The Far Eastern Economic Region is the largest territorial unit of Russia, covering an area of more than six million square kilometers with a population of more than 7 million people. It includes the Chukchi and Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, Magadan, Sakhalin, Amur, Kamchatka Regions and the Republic of Sakha.
The Far Eastern economic region is a third of the Russian Federation, where there is poor development, remoteness from industrial centers. The border of the territory is located next to China and the DPRK, as well as by sea with the United States and Japan.
Long distances, harsh climate, the spread of permafrost inhibits the economic development of the area. Considerable remoteness and insufficiently developed system of transport communications makes expensive delivery and export of goods to other industrial regions of Russia, which negatively affects the economy. However, the seaside position makes trade with the countries of the Asia-Pacific zone economically advantageous.
Natural resources have exceptional diversity, which is associated with a huge area. Climate zones change from south to north: from forests, forest-tundra to tundra and the Arctic desert. Minerals are represented by deposits of coal, natural gas, iron ore, oil, reserves of rare and non-ferrous metals, gold and diamonds.
The population has an extreme uneven distribution associated with harsh environmental conditions, poor development of the transport system, and remoteness from the center. The southern regions have the highest density - up to 14 people per km. square (Sakhalin, Amur, south of the Khabarovsk Territory), the average density is 1.20 people per sq. km.
The ethnic composition of the population is quite heterogeneous. The Far East economic region is inhabited mainly by Russians, besides them indigenous nationalities are represented: Chukchi, Eskimos, Itelmene, Koryak, Nanai, Aleut, Evenki, Yakut, Udege and others. Indigenous peoples still maintain a traditional way of life and are engaged in reindeer husbandry, fishing and hunting. The urbanization rate of the district is 76 percent.
The economy of the regions of Russia is represented by various specializations. In the Far East, the main ones are processing and mining of non-ferrous metals, diamonds, timber, fish, paper and pulp industry, ship repair and shipbuilding. The metallurgical complex is based on the extraction and processing of mercury, tin, tungsten, polymetals, arsenic. The diamond mining industry, which is located in Yakutia, is developing at an accelerated pace. Gold mining is also important - the oldest branch of the region’s economy . In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a steel mill was commissioned.
In the southern part of the region, the woodworking and forestry industries developed . It produces cellulose, paper, lumber and fiberboard. The main centers of woodworking are located in Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk and Vladivostok.
The Far Eastern economic region has a diverse structure of engineering, the leading role of which belongs to ship repair and production of equipment for the energy sector. In addition, ship appliances, machine tools, mechanisms, diesels and cranes are produced in the region.
The Far East leads fish catch. Here salmon, crab, saury and other fish species are mined. Agriculture produces soy, grain and rice. Cattle are raised in the south , and deer in the north. However, the region’s need for meat is not covered by its own resources.
Despite the extraction of oil, gas and coal, the district, due to the imperfect structure of the fuel and energy complex, lacks electricity. Therefore, the main direction for the development of the economy should be the improvement of the structure of gas and oil supply.