Trans-Baikal Territory
The Trans-Baikal Territory was established in 2008 as a result of merging the Chita Region and the Agin Buryat Autonomous Area. The territory is part of the Siberian Federal District. It borders on Mongolia in the south, on the Republic of Buryatia in the north-west, on the Irkutsk Region in the north, on the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Amur Region to the east and on China to the south-east.
The territory's administrative centre is the city of Chita, with the population of 309,000.
The territory occupies 2.53% of Russia's area, or 431,900 square kilometres.
According to the Federal Service for State Statistics, the territory's population is 1,116,970 people (0.79% of Russia's population), of which 89.8% are Russians, 6.1% Buryats, 1% Ukrainians and 3.1% other nationalities. The population density is 2.6 people per square kilometre. The population is 63.9% urban.
The Trans-Baikal Territory is located in the south east of Eastern Siberia. Mountain ridges prevail in the territory (Yablonovy, Olekminsky, Chersky Ridges, etc) which are divided by intermountain basins.
The climate is sharp continental. The average temperature varies from - 33°С to -26°С in January and from +17°С to +21°С in July. The annual amount of precipitations is 300 mm per year. Some areas of the territory are covered with permafrost.
The main industrial activities include:
- production of mineral resources (46%);
- production and distribution of electricity, gas and water (34%);
- manufacturing industries (20%): production of food, including beverages and tobacco; textile manufacturing; leather, leather products and shoe manufacturing; wood processing and woodworking; pulp and paper manufacturing; publishing and printing; chemicals; manufacturing of other non-metallic mineral products; machinery and equipment manufacturing; manufacturing of electrical, electronic and optical equipment; manufacturing of transport vehicles and equipment.
In January-May 2010, the industrial production index increased 2% year-on-year, in particular mineral resource production grew 1.1% and 12.8% for other manufacturing industries.
In January-April 2010, the government ran a budget surplus of 2.9 billion roubles. In particular, its revenue proper stood at 7.7 billion roubles (55.5% in total revenue compared with 48.5% year-on-year), expenses exceeded 10.9 billion roubles, of which 33.9% were spent on education, 17.9% on social provisions and 16.5% on physical education and sport. The low financial security of the region makes it dependent on subsidies from the federal centre, that accounted for 56.17% of the territory's budget in January-April, 2010. Budget self-sufficiency stood at 51.22% in 2009 and 70.13% in January-April, 2010.
In January-May, 2010, the improvement in actual cash expenses stood at 103.5% year-on-year. The average salary grew 1.5% January-April, 2010. According to the Federal Service for Statistics, as of April 1, 2010, over 20% of residents in the Trans-Baikal Territory had an income below the poverty line.
In April 2010, expenses per capita in the region exceeded the cost of minimal essential products by 82.2% (in Russia generally by 88.1%).
Agricultural lands occupy 7.7 million ha (17.7% of the territory's area). Agriculture concentrates on grains (wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, barley), potatoes, vegetables, corn and silage. Animal husbandry includes the production of meat, milk and eggs. Agricultural lands include cereal crops (75.9%), potatoes (8.1%), vegetables (1%), forage crops (13.3%) and industrial crops (1.7%).
The transport network includes railway, highway and air.
Large stations: Chita, Petrovsk-Zabaikalsky, Karymskaya, Khilok, Shilka, Mogocha, Borzya, Zabaikalsk and Solovyovsk.
The territory's transport network includes the Trans-Baikal Railway and a part of the Baikal-Amur Railway (330 km). The railway has a route kilometrage of 2,311.
The motorway system is 24,118 km in route length including 16,460 km of paved roads. The Chita-Khabarovsk motorway, that is being built parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway, is of great importance.
The Chita Airport services both international and local airlines. Eight Russian airlines and one South-Chinese company provide air transport services there.
The length of domestic navigable passages is 1,343 km.
Lead, silver, tin, wolframite, molybdenum, fluorite, gold, etc. are produced in the territory.
There are deposits of limestone, clay, perlite, granite and over two hundred deposits of sand, building stone, brick clay, bentonite clay and zeolites. Over 50 aquifers have been explored.
Manganese deposits are on stream. There are deposits of iron ore, copper (Udokan, China, Verkhny Sakukan, Lugokan, Bystrinsky, Kudtuminsky, Luktur and Ebkachansky), of lead and zinc (over 700 deposits), molybdenum (about 100 deposits), wolframite (several hundreds deposits), tin ore; mercury, antimony and wolframite ore; rare metals (lithium, tantalum, niobium, zirconium, germanium), rare earth metals (Zavitinsk, Orlovsky, Etyka, Achikan, Malaya Kulinda and Katugin).
Over 1,000 deposits of vein and placer gold were discovered and explored. There are prerequisites for producing recoverable reserves of platinum group metals (the Kruchina deposit). Six uranium ore areas were discovered: the Streltsovsky, Antei deposits, etc.
