Positioning of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Volga Federal District

At the moment the struggle of the regions for investment and innovations has increased. In this struggle the regions that try to increase their competitiveness in the frames of various territorial associations, get the advantage. In connection with this the question of evaluation of competitiveness and positioning of the regions is becoming rather urgent. At that both the purely economic, as well as the complex approaches to the assessment of competitiveness of regions are possible. But taking into account that the increase of competitiveness of the region must be accompanied by the improvement of the quality of life which is impossible without improving social and environmental conditions, the assessment of competitiveness should be carried out taking into account both economic and non-economic indicators. The concept of competitiveness should be built up with inter-balance of all principles of social-economic development. Competitiveness of the region should be considered by the whole complex of indicators that are components of the subsystems: population, economy, infrastructure and ecology. The aim of this work is to review the positioning of the Republic of Tatarstan in the framework of the Volga Federal District, as well as the analysis of changes of the position of the Republic for the period from 2007 to 2011. The Republic of Tatarstan is one of the most developed regions of the Volga Federal District which unites fourteen regions of Russia. The method based on a diagnostic set of indicators, including twelve indicators, is used for assessment. These indicators characterize the gross regional product, the turnover of companies, innovative activities of companies, density of the transport network, emission o