The problem of raising the effectiveness of management and intensifying the economy is becoming especially urgent for the Far Eastern economy because of the more important part the region is playing in promoting more stable growth rates of the nation's economy and because of its vast reserves of minerals, raw materials, and biological resources. M. S. Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, emphasized at a meeting of party-economic activists of the Tiumen' and Tomsk regions: "The accelerated development of the productive forces of Siberia and the Far East is an important, integral part of the Party's economic strategy." This idea is contained in the draft of the new Program of the CPSU. Because it is absolutely impossible for the region to meet its important economic targets without science and scientific-technological progress, the Far Eastern Science Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, together with party and economic organizations, is drafting the "Far East" integrated program for the development of its productive forces. The Far East is a unique, yet insufficiently studied region of the nation. Natural resources are the basis of its economic development. It is the focus of vast mineral, raw material, and biological resources that have not so much regional as national economic significance because of their concentration and, in a number of cases, the absence of competing variants in other regions. These resources are quite effective and can supply a large part of the nation's requirement for a number of products. The Far Eastern region today accounts for a considerable part of the fish catch. It is a producer of timber, gold, silver, zinc, lead, and tin. Its mining industry produces high quality zinc concentrate. The Far East accounts for one-seventh of the nation's fur production. The region is renowned for its honey and medicinal herbs, including the unique ginseng and eleutherococcus.
