Amurskaya Oblast'.

Date of formation - October 20, 1932.

Administrative centre - Blagoveshensk (214 thousand people), founded in 1858.

Geographic location. The Amurskaya oblast is located in the south of the Far East.

It borders:
With China in the south and in the south-west;
With the Republic of Sakha in the north;
With the Khabarovskii Krai in the north-east and in the east;
With the Jewish Autonomous Region in the north-east.

Natural conditions. There is Stanovoi range (height up to 2312 m) in the northern part of the Amurskaya Oblast; souther - the mountains chains of Jankan, Tukuringra, Soktakhan, Dazhgdi; Zeisko-Bureinskaya and Amursko-Zeiskaya plains occupy about 2/5 (two fifth) of the territory in Amurskaya Oblast.

The main rivers are the Amur River, the Zeya River and the Bureya River.

Population. More then are third of the population live in the rural area. The Russians make the major part of the population (92%). The Ukrainians (4%) and other nations live in the Amurskaya Oblast too.

Since 1993 the death rate is higher than the birth rate. One to the negative natural increase and migration from the region the total population of the Amurskaya Oblast intensively decreasing.

Economic advantages and shortcomings. Serious but unrealized advantage of the Amurskaya Oblast is its economic and geographic location which gives the chance to settle close economic ties and production cooperation with the neighbour: Chinese province Kheilunzyan.

The Amurskaya Oblast is rich in mineral resources; the soils are rather fertile for productive grain farming. The Amurskaya Oblast has a good energetic base: hat power stations using the local coal and Zeiskaya hydroelectric power station.

The Amurskaya Oblast is an important junction of transport building, the building base of Baikalo-Amurskaya and Amursko-Jakutskaya main lines. The Amurskaya Oblast has considerable stocks of wood. Its animal and vegetable kingdoms are rather various.

Specialization. The main industries of the Amurskaya Oblast specialization are transport mining industry, timber and agriculture according to some facts, about 40% of all Russian old is being mined in Amurskaya Oblast. The milk and meat industry, stock-breeding, herd horse-breeding and grain-growing are developed in the are being gathered in Amurskaya Oblast.

The main industries:

• electroenergetics;
• mining industry (gold mining and coal mining);
• timber industry;
• production of building materials and contractions;
• food industry (meat branch).

The main industrial centers: Blagoveshensk, Belogorsk, Raichikhinsk, Shimanovsk, Svobodnii and Tinda.

Investments. According to the "Expert" Magazine the Amurskaya Oblast is in the group of regions with the lowest favourable climate. Nevertheless, there are considerable foreign investments in the oblast's economy based apparently on the belief in the future of the Amurskaya Oblast. The Amurskaya Oblast's government issued the special region investment legislation at the end of 1996.

The economic progrects of the Amurskaya Oblast are very much connected with the following processes:

• the end of the building the bridge across the Amur River;
• the creating of the united Russian - Chinese zone for the free trade.