The Mechanism of Self-Financing

Given the consistent implementation of the principles of self-financing, work collectives must be motivated to produce more, cheaper, better, and faster, to carry out contractual obligations without fail, and to accelerate scientific-technological progress. Only then will they be able to ensure adequate sources for remunerating labor, for their social and productive development. The transition to self-financing is a demand of the party program that resounded with special force at the June 1987 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. While this mechanism was until recently applied at two state industrial enterprisesthe Sumy M. V. Frunze Machine-Building Science-Production Association and the >i>"AvtoVAZ">/i> Associationall enterprises belonging to the Ministry of Chemical and Petroleum Machine Building, the Ministry of Instrument Making, Automation Equipment, and Control Systems, the Ministry of the Automotive Industry, the Ministry of the Petroleum Refining and Petrochemical Industry, the Ministry of Light Industry, and thirty-seven other large enterprises of other industrial ministries have now been converted to self-financing. Nine percent of all industrial enterprises that account for more than 20 percent of total industrial output are now operating on a self-financing basis.

General and Specific Problems of Economic Reform in Socialist Countries

Socialism in different countries has both common regularities and specific features. Individual participants in the seminar reevaluated "national" aspects of economic mechanisms. In my view the common regularities that form the nucleus of the socialist system are dominant in all variants. This has nothing in common with a situation in which some countries force their ideas on others and try to make one size fit all. Unity in the given instance is understood as objective commonness, as the coincidence of basic features. The freer the new systems are from dogmatism and errors, the closer they approach the ideal, the more powerfully are these features manifested. In this sense the advantage belongs to those who carry out reforms, who take the strong and weak sides of the pioneers into account, and who are able to bypass elementary and rudimentary structures.

Preparing New Amortization Rate Norms for the Basic Funds

The norms of amortization and the value of basic funds determine the appropriations for amortization. Amortization norms are required for calculating costs of production, prices, funds for maintaining the aggregate social product, national income, the effectiveness of new production techniques, financing capital construction, capital repairs, and modernization, and strengthening self-support. Therefore the working out of new norms of amortization has great importance for the economics of socialist production.

The Depreciation of Basic Plant and the Financing of Its Repair and Modernization

The seven-year plan envisages a new large-scale development of the productive forces of our country. The chief condition for its successful completion is the growth of labor productivity through technical progress, a better utilization of basic plant, and improvement in the skills and qualifications of workers and in production organization. One of the most important problems in extensive allround mechanization and automatization will be the organization of high-quality and timely repairs, which to a considerable degree determine the normal flow of the production process. Hence questions relating to further improvement in the organization, planning and financing of repair operations assume great national economic importance.

Profit and The Material Stimulation of High Production Indices

Higher efficiency of production is one of the essential tasks in the building of communism. The question of enhancing the role of profit and converting it into the main criterion for assessing the activity of enterprises, replacing the cost of production index, has been raised in the course of the discussion in the press in recent years on ways and methods of improving the management of enterprises. Although in principle a saving on the cost of production, all other conditions being equal, is tantamount to a growth of profit, nevertheless, profit possesses certain advantages in stimulating the personnel of enterprises. First, it is closer to the end indices of their work; its magnitude depends not only on the outlays credited to the cost of production, but also on outlays covered directly from profits (losses on the retirement of fixed assets, the writing off of indebtedness, etc.). This is one of the reasons for the discrepancy between the fulfillment of cost of production and profit plans, the "secret" with respect to why enterprises cope more successfully with the targets for the reduction of production outlays than with accumulation assignments. Second, in contrast to the cost of production, profit is determined on the basis of the realized output, and not of all output. Thereby it is closer to consumption, to control over the social recognition of the product. That is why profit compels an enterprise to concern itself to a greater extent with renewal of assortment and improvement of quality.

Centralized Management and the Independence of Production Collectives

One of our most important economic tasks is to find forms and methods of centralized economic management that correspond to the conditions of the increased independence and responsibility of production associations (enterprises) and that are appropriate to the existing level of developed socialist society that has been built in the USSR.

Plan Indicators, Economic Norms, and Rules

The aims of socialist society, which mirror the demands of its economic laws, are achieved through the elaboration and implementation of plans for the nation's economic and social development. These plans are implemented through a system of plan indicators, economic norms, and rules. Plan indicators are of a specific address nature. Economic norms can be general or of a specific address nature (individual). The same situation also holds true for rules.

The New Depreciation Allowance Rates and Control Over their Application by Financial Agencies

Creation of the material and technical base of communism presupposes a mighty development of the production plant, an increase in the equipment per unit of labor in all branches of the national economy, and a rapid growth of the fixed production assets. A technical revolution is under way in the country; the output of advanced equipment, raw and other materials is increasing. The roles of the modern instrument-building industry, of new synthetic chemical compounds, and of the power capacity of production are steadily increasing.

Economic Stimuli to Increase the Effectiveness of Capital Investments and the Output-To-Capital Ratio

The September (1965) Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee posed, as a central problem, the task of maximum enhancement of the efficiency of social production, economies in the outlays of living and materialized labor, and higher yields from capital investments and fixed production assets.

The Economics of Developing the Resources of the World's Oceans

The earth's water shell occupies almost 71% of its surface. More than 94% of the hydrosphere is made up of the world's oceans, half of which is made up of Pacific Ocean.