Evaluating the impact of logistics infrastructure on the functioning and development of regional economy

In the article, key factors of development and main elements of logistics infrastructure are outlined, their impact on different areas of regional economy is evaluated. The authors conducted comparative study of different groups of factors and built an econometric model for some of them. The resulting regression made it possible to find important interdependencies for Kazakhstan, namely: increase of the demand for transport and logistics services by 1% leads to GRP increase by 7.013 billion tenge (USD 20.7 mln); the investment to the infrastructure sector increase by 1% leads to GRP increase by 0.638 billion tenge (USD 1.9 mln); the commodity stocks in warehouses increase by 1% leads to GRP increase by 2.747 billion tenge (USD 8.1 mln), and increase in tariffs on transportation by 1% results in GRP decrease by 25.745 billion tenge (USD 75.9 mln). To increase the efficiency of the regional economy functioning, the authors introduced an approach to regulate and manage logistics infrastructure in the regions, incorporating the latest global trends as well as adapting to the unique needs of different macro-regions of Kazakhstan (in terms of their investment and logistics capacities). The carried out grouping of the Kazakh regions within the author approach made it possible to ground the formation and singling out the perspective growth poles which should become the country's integration zones with regional and global markets. They are the hubs in the following macroregions: North with the centre in Astana; Central-East with its centre in Ust-Kamenogorsk city; West with the centre in Aktobe; South with its centres in Almaty and Shymkent. The economic characteristics and development potential of each growth pole is presented in the paper.