JPRS-UST-84-019

30 November 1984

USSR Report

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY

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JPRS-UST- 84-019

30 November 1984

USSR REPORT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PoLIcy 5

CONTENTS

PRAVDA Views Social Aspects of S&T Progress (Pro? R. Yanovskiy; PRAVDA, 28 Sep 84) ...ccsccccececcccevceccess 1

Increasing L°ficiency of Economic Research (V. Dubov; EKONOMIKA I ZHIZN', No 6, Jum 84)...cceccccccccceeess 7

Expert Appraisal in Preparing Planning Decisions (V. Kim; EKONOMIKA I ZHIZN', No 5, May 84). ...secccseccsecceces 13

Works Vying for Komsomol Prizes in Science, Technology (KOMSOMOL'SKAYA PRAVDA, 27 Jul 84) ...cccccccccccccccccececseces 19

Seminar on Problems of Socialist Competition in Science (A. Zolotarev (Kharkov), V. Andriyenko; EKONOMIKA SOVETSKOY UKRAINY, No 6, Jun 84).......466. PTTITITITT ITT LITTiTT 29

Forecasting and Long-Term Planning of S&T Progress in Latvian SSR (M. Raman; NAUKA I TEKHNIKA, No 8, Aug 84)....ccccccccceveccces 35

Problems in Development, Production of Innovative Accessories (MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA, 1 Jun 84) “eee eee eee ee ee eeeenenee eee eeeeeee 41

Pokrovskiy Book on Scientific and Technical Progress Reviewed (A. Kolesnikov, N. Lavrenov; PLANOVOYE KHOZYAYSTVO, No 7, Jul it 5066066606000066060608 ene eee eee eeneeneeeenseeeeeeeeneeseteeee 45

Mathematical Method Proposed for Predicting Equipment Needs z. Popova; PLANOVOYE KHOZYAYSTVO, No 8, Aug Dilitesoensenetees 49

Report on Annual Meeting of Georgian Academy of Sciences (ZARYA VOSTOKA, 5 Apr PPT TPT TT TT TTTrrrererrrrrryrTr Ts *eeee . 54

= a- [III - USSR - 2lo S&T]

PRAVDA VIEWS SOCIAL ASPECTS OF S&T PROGRESS PMO91101 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 28 Sep 84 First Edition pp 2, 3

[Article by Doctor of Philosophical Science, Rector of the CPSU Central Com- mittee Academy of Social Sciences, Prof. R. Yanovskiy, under the rubric "Theoretical Matters": "Socialism, Science, and People")

[Text] The acceleration of scientific and technical progress is a notable feature of the modern era. Mankind is currently in a long historical period of scientific and technical revolution. Its achievements are most fully man- ifested in the conditions of the socialist system. This is natural. After all, the communist party's chief aim and real socialism's main task are to satisfy as fully as possible a person's needs and requirements and mold his abilities on the basis of the maximum development of production and utiliza- tion of the achievements of science and technology, culture and education.

At first glance it appears that the scientific and technical revolution is

not directly linked to the solution of personal spiritual problems. But that is not so. Scientific knowledge provides a broad view of things and of the phenomena of surrounding reality, helps to identify the more general and deep- er aspects of life anc interpret and generalize practical achievements, and in many respects shapes social consciousness. Political, labor, and moral educa- tion are inconceivable without these spiritual phenomena. And it is here that science's educational function, party commitment, and humanity are clearly evident.

The times we are living in are characterized by a transition to a nature, higher stage of socialist development as well as by the exacerbation of the ideological, political and economic struggle between the two systems in the international arena. This makes us look again at the aims of science and its place in social consciousness and social practice.

At no time in the past has the potential of science been so great, and never before has the intelligentsia, which is now a large strata of the working people, had so massive a responsibility as in the period of developed social- ism.

"The very nature of the tasks facing our society," Comrade K. U. Chernenko noted at the Jubilee Plenum of the USSR Writers Union, "offers truly unlimited

scope tor the creative effort and energy of all detachments of the Soviet intelligentsia." Exerting a tremendous influence on social consciousness and on society's spiritual life, the intelligentsia is expected to actively aid the development of the Soviet person's scientific philosophy, moral pur- ity, and ideological steadfastness and contribute the forging of an organic link between the achievements of the scientific and technical revolution and the advantages of the socialist system of management.

Scientific and technical progress has already led to a considerable updating of the entire national economy. We can expect even more profound changes in the sphere of material production in the final decades of the 20th century.

The distinctive feature of the modern production process is its increasing intellectual content. The increased efficiency of the national economy and the intensification of production are very closely associated with the ac- celerated assimilation of scientific discoveries and the achievements of tech- nological research. And, of course, with the reorganization of economic thinking.

It should be noted in particular that the scientific and technical revolu- tion is primarily a revolution in the sphere of technology. Mechanization and automation play a significant part in it, but the change in the actual method of handling the objects of labor is becoming increasingly significant. Substantial changes in the economy result from new tectiaology.

The switch to new technology means not only purely economic problems but also the education of people themselves. In fact, modern production "perceives" each working person more acutely than before, needs the breadth of his knowledge and businesslike, quick, and correct decisions. It depends more than ever before on these qualities, since scientific and technical progress is involving a larger number of people in the handling of powerful equipment: nuclear power stations and spacecraft, rolling mills, computers, and entire automated enterprises. You simply cannot work in this area without substan- tial education and vocational training and the appropriate level of con- sciousness and moral standards.

Let us consider them. Clearly, more and more workers are switching to labor that ensures the normal functioning of automated technological systems. A comparatively small number of operators is replacing a large number of people working with machine tools, of installation workers and fitters. Trouble- shooters, engineers, maintenance staff, and workers in production units in- volved in trials and experiments are now acquiring crucial significance, hav- ing previously performed an auxiliary role.

Most of these professions, created by the scientific and technical revolution, are associated with increasing job complexity, but the very content of the work is undergoing qualitative rearrangement. In representative work places in scientific-industrial production much more significance is being attached to original operations combining intellectual and physical effort, and it is sometimes necessary to tackle the most unexpected tasks. The people actually involved in modern production are increasingly focusing attention on their

own “human functions," finding optimum ways out of complex technical situ- ations, developing new technology, and so forth. As a result of the switch to new, advanced techniques people are increasingly able to break away from the processes of indirect production, are turning from performers into genuine creators, and are increasingly, to use K. Marx's words,''subjecting the forces of nature to common reason.'' (K. Marx, F. Engels, Works Vol 46, p 218).

But if the labor becomes more complex, the nature of vocational training also changes. Breadth and depth of knowledge of one's speciality become an es- sential condition of high skill. And it must be backed up by general second- ary education and a comprehensive technical base. That is, the national economy's switch to the intensive path of development and the extensive intro- duction of scientific achievements demand an improvement in the entire system of education in this area, since extensive factors--extending the training period, increasing the work load--have, of course, been exploited to the fullest. It is the express purpose of the school reform started this year to solve many of these problems.

The time has come when narrow specialization by any skilled worker or engineer is no longer satisfying society's needs. That is why the role of a worker's self-organization [Samoorganizatsiya] is increasing and their responsibility and initiative are so essential. But people's responsibility and reliability are fundamentally different from equipment reliability. Much depends here on their education. Conscious discipline and responsibility, professional ex- pertise, and a sound philosophical and life stance are decisive factors for all working people in the solution of tasks set by the party for future decades. For most working people the desire to contribute to their solution is an im- portant stimulus to disciplined, highly productive work. Just as significant is the fair application of the socialist principle of payment by quantity and quality of labor.

At the same time, in social relations and in individual behavior elements per- sist of individualism and of mercenary attitudes and mentality. These and other phenomena connected with the action of various factors, including shortcomings in ideological and educational work, sometimes find a fertile medium in the excessive demands and egotistical habits of certain individuals. We still lack persistence and aggression, sharpness and precision in the strug- gle against these phenomena. We need a great deal of scientific and propaganda work and close collaboration between party workers, scientists, journalists, and all honest workers. Sectors of social knowledge such as Marxist-Leninist education, ethics, social psychology, and the entire complex of social

sciences have a big contribution to make to this.

In the conditions of the scientific and technical revolution the relationships between the different spheres of human activity are intensifying and becoming more multifaceted. Therefore, when talking about human development it is not enough just to stress the role of scientific and technical progress without taking into account the correlation between it and social and spiritual pro- gress. Modern man's ties with society and the conditions of his everyday life and development are expressed through the medium of the social-class, national, and demographic structure.

It is in the solution of human problems that the advantages of the socialist system are most strikingly and consistently manifested. Capitalism has not solved and is incapable of solving the real problems of human relationships; it contributes to people's alienation and to the development of egotism and indifference. Whereas socialism, as a society which intrinsically combines

in its development the onward march of history and the realization of human- itarian ideals, is solving these problems consistently and increasingly fully.

The shaping of the new man and the comprehensive, harmonious development of the individual are not just one of the main tasks of communist building; they are its supreme goal. This is natural. After all, when a society is con- fronted with qualitatively new tasks--and that is what the tasks of improving developed socialism are--their solution requires a new level of social con- sciousness.

We need as Comrade K. U. Chernenko has ovuserved, "persistent work to increase the masses' consciousness, to bring about a definite reorientation, if you will, of social consciousness so that it assimilates the rarty's new ideas more quickly and resolutely rids itself of obsolete, bac ard views."

And the social sciences have a key role to play here. The specific nature of social knowledge is that it shapes the fundamental and most general philosophical, political, and economic guidelines for people's practical and theoretical activity and molds social consciousness, rational demands, interests, and the motives for people's behavior. by dint of this it con- tributes to the successful implementation of the political, socioeconomic, and ideological activity of the Communist Party.

At the present stage the social sciences are faced with qualitatively new, crucial tasks. Basically the tasks are to intensify the influence on the solution of topical political, economic, and social problems and to strengthen the link between scientific researc! and practical ideological and educational work. But the chief task is to study in depth the machinery involved in the functioning and improvement of mature socialism and the laws governing its advance toward communist and to address the problems presented by the practice of our society's development.

As for the vital features of the present-day social situation, one must stress, first, the increased interdependence between the fulfillment of the most important economic programs and the standard and quality of ideological and political education work. There can be no effective advances in the socio- economic sphere today if there is a lag in the ideological and educational sphere.

Second, mention should be made of the intensification and complexity of social processes and the abundance of multifaceted, often contradictory in- formation absorbed by modern man. Mention must be made in this connection of the increasing complexity of the actual process of shaping the individual and of the dialectics of social and individual consciousness.

4

The influence of social processes on social consciousness and its various forms has also become more dynamic. Such phenomena as the increasing com- plexity of economic ties and shifts in distribution relations and consumption in some cases contribute to the social and the moral and professional growth of the individual and in other cases can lead to the appearance of various harmful egotistical and individualist elements (departmentalism, parochial- ism, inflated figures, reporting money-grubbing, and so forth).

An important and in many respects determining factor in the present situ- ation is the sharp exacerbation of the ideological struggle and the sophis- tication and diversity of the forms in which it occurs. Those aspects and facets of our way of life which never used to be regarded as significant in the practice of political education are carrying an increasing ideological "burden,"

It is the need to take into account all the features of the present-day ideological situation that makes it necessary to strengthen the social sciences’ ties with the practice of communist education. Social scientists have not only to investigate more vigorously the social laws and trends of development, but also to learn how to join forces with party committees and labor collectives and give them prompt and skilled assistance.

By studying the dynamic and nondynamic features of social phenomena and elucidating the trends and laws of their development, social scientists are developing Marxist-Leninist theory as a fundamental methodological basis for the solution of topical tasks of developed socialism. It is equally important to bring the results of their research up to the requisite "technological" level and to elaborate applied concepts and appropriate methods of intro- ducing them. Only with their help can theoretical propositions be translated into the concrete practical language.

Under the leadership of the party committee scientists are successfully join- ing forces in a number of regions of the country of "hone" the results of some research and established a direct link between basic studies and ideological practice. In Belorussia, for example, it means work in residential areas: in Azerbaijan aud Georgia it is public opinion studies and questions of social planning; in Tyumen Oblast it is the control of moral processes in labor col- lectives. Useful experience of integrating theoretical research and practical studies has been accumulated in the socialist countries--for example in the GDR and Bulgaria. The task now is to considerably improve and make extensive use of targeted program planning methods in the social sciences.

The need for comprehensive research is one of the topical questions relating

to increased social science efficiency that must be highlighted. As a rule, every fundamental problem is a multiple one and its practical implementation requires changes in many elements of the production and nonproduction sphere. The creation of an effective comprehensive program of communist education

at individual enterprise level presupposes not only good organization of train- ing in the political and economic organization network--which is very important too, of course--but also the improvement of a number of complex social factors

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in the sphere of labor, everyday life, and leisure. Special attention must be paid to increasing the socioeconomic effectiveness of and ensuring a high growth rate in labor productivity.

The solution of the wide range of problems of "scientific anthropology"

makes great deamnds on a scientists’ philosophical methodology and his profes- sional and civic responsibility. In present conditions it is not enough just give a verbal" explanation of party policy. Although very important, it is not the social scientists' only task. By making active use of the press, radio, television, and all forms of mass training, it is necessary to effect profound positive changes in economic thinking and labor activity and to contribute to the improvement of the moral climate and the shaping of politi- cal culture.

In modern conditions K. Marx's well-known proposition that philosophers "have only explained the world in various ways, whereas it is a matter of changing it" is acquiring even richer and more specific content.

So social scientists must not only acquire the requisite volume of profes- sional knowledge and Marxist-Leninist methodology but must also have a sound grasp of the CPSU's domestic and foreign policy and be able to cogently de- fend their position and be active political fighters.

In solving the problem of the individual from the positions of historical materialism, Marxism-Leninism has established a genuine scientific foundation for an analysis of the dialectical link between the development of society and the education of people. V. I. Lenin always associated the thesis of a per- son's comprehensive d2velopment with the socialist transformation of society, with a change in social relations, and with social and scientific-technical progress.

Of course, the education of millions of people and alteration of their men- tality and morals is primarily a political task. But it is also a educational task. In conditions of developed socialism society is now at the stage of development where it is posing and tackling the problem of changing people, comprehensively developing their creative inclinations, and making the trans- ition to a higher level of development which determines the individual's poltiical, social, and cultural makeup as well. The educational tasks have now come to be seen as being part and parcel of sociopolitical and state tasks. The demands and structural components of the Soviet educational system and, above all, education's tasks and aims stem from the theoretical and political tasks that the Communist Party and Soviet people are tackling in present-day conditions.

The tough tasks that have to be solved in the economy, in science and technol- ogy, and in other spheres of social life make high demands on people and con- sequently, on educational work. For we cannot make successful progress with- out the baking of profound knowledge, a high level of consciousness and culture in all working people, and the massive spiritual and creative potential amassed by generations of Soviet people. The fuller mobilization of this potential can impart powerful impetus to our development on the path of improving developed socialism.

CSO: 1814/5

INCREASING EFFICIENCY OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH Tashkent EKONOMIKA I ZHIZN' in Russian o 6, Jun 84 pp 11-13

[Article by Candidate of Economic Sciences V. Dubov, deputy chief of the Science and Technology Administration of the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee: "How to Increase the Efficiency of Economic Research" ]

[Text] Economic science is a most important component of the progress of social production. Its role in the solution of practical problems, which are of vital importance for the economic strategy of the party, is stressed in the decree of the CPSU Central Committee "On Increasing the Role of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Elaboration of the Key Questions of the Economic Theory of Mature Socialism."

In our republic the Institute of Economics, the Institute of Cybernetics and Computer Center and the Council for the Study of Productive Forces (SOPS) of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Research Institute of Economics (NIEI), the Republic Center of the Scientific Organization of Labor (RTs NOT) and the Computing and Data Processing Center (IVTs) attached to the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee, the Central Asian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (SANIIESKh) of the Central Asian Department of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences imeni V. I. Lenin, the affiliate of the Scientific Research Institute of Labor and the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Consumer Demand and Market Conditions, the Tashkent Institute of the National Economy (TINKh), avout 60 chairs of economic specialization of other higher educational institutions, as well as the economic subdivisions of scientific research institutes, flanning, planning and design and technological organizations are conducting scientific research work of the economic type.

More than 60 major problems, which encompass various aspects of the theory and practice of the socioeconomic development of the republic, are being elaborated in these collectives. The total number of scientists and scientific teaching personnel, who are engaged in the study of problems of the economic type, comes to about 2,300, or 7.3 percent of the scientists of the republic, including more than 1,200 doctors and candidates of sciences.

In recent years in the work of economic subdivisions the orientation toward the needs of planning practice has strengthened, the level and efficiency of research have increased. The ties of scientific organizations with the Uzbek

SSR State Planning Committee have become noticeably stronger, the demands of planning crgans on the soundness of the recommendations and proposals of scientists on the problems of the socioeconomic development of the republic have increased. Now all the most important economic developments are discussed and approved at the meetings of the Collegium of the State Planning Committee and of the State Planning Committee.

Among the significant economic studies of recent years one should note the developments of the Kibernetika Scientific Production Association on the introduction of the first section of the Uzbek SSR Republic Automated Control System, the proposals of the Scientific Research Institute of Economics attached to the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee on prepla:ning elaborations of the basic directions of the economic and social development of the republic for the 11th Five-Year Plan, the materials of the Council for the Study of Productive Forces of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences on the problems of the diversion to Central Asia of the waters of Siberian rivers, as well as the Comprehensive Program of Scientific and Technical Progress of the Uzbek SSR to 2005 and the Master Plan of the Development of the Productive Forces of the Republic to 2000.

At the same time the content and effectiveness of the scientific research activity of the economic subdivisions of the republic still do not meet the requirements, which were set for economic science by the 26th CPSU Congress, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan and the subsequent CPSU Central Committee plenums. The shortcomings in the work of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which were noted in the decree of the CPSU Central Committee, can also be fully attributed to the activity of our scientific research organizations and higher educational institutions.

It is still impossible to recognized as adequate the contribution of science to the solution of the urgent problems of economic theory and management practice. The laws and trends of the development of our society are being analyzed, with allowance made for the specific nature of the republic, without proper depth. The specific ways and means of overcoming and eliminating the existing contradictions and shortcomings are being poorly substantiated. Th: scientific reserve of research, which is called upon to promote the changeover of the economy of the republic to the intensive means of development, the accomplishment of the tasks of the management of scientific and technical progress, the acceleration of the replacement of productive capital at a higher technical level and tne improvement and reform of the economic mechanism of management and planning, is inadequate. Economic science for the present is still not providing with the necessary reserve the preplanning developments in the area of the formation and development of territoria|] production complexes. At the corresponding scientific institutions there are still quite a number of unproductive subdivisions, which for years are dependent on the state and on laboratories and departments, which operate efficiently.

Such a situation in many ways is explained by the shortcomings of the established system of the management and planning of scientific research of the economic type. The existing system of administrative supervision envisages the division of scientific activity into three spheres: th:

academic sphere, the sphere of higher educational institutions and the sectorial sphere. Each of them has its own managenent organ--the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, the ministry or the denartment, which carries out supervision within its own sphere and is independent of a similar organ of the ther sphere. As a resuit unjustified duplication and parallelism are observed in the structure and the research being conducted.

Thus, they study the questions of the forecasting of the growth of the population and the formation and use of manpower resources at the Institute of Economics and the Council for the Study of Productive Forces of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Research Institute of Economics attached to the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee, the Uzlek Affiliate of the Scientific Research Institute of Labor, as well as the Population Scientific Research Laboratory of Tashkent State Jniversity. However, in spite of such a large detachment of researchers, the demographers of the republic have never been able to present when approving the Master Plan convincing scientific proof for the refutation of the understated calculations of the size of the population of the republic to 2000, which have been accepted by union organs.

A similar situation has also formed with the elaborations on the improvement of the structure of industrial production, the formation of the fuel and energy planning balance, the development of scientific and technical progress and so on.

Scientific forces and material resources at tines are dispersed for the fulfillment of minor themes, which are unimportant for the national economy and science. On the averare not more than three or four people are employed in the fulfillment of one theme. As a result the potential of scientific Organizations of the economic type, which should be concentrated on the solution of such problems as the comprehensive economic and social development of the republic, oblasts and cities, the more complete combination of sectorial and territorial planning, the identification and commitment to the economic turnover of reserves and additional sources of the increase of the volumes and efficiency of production and the increase of the scientific soundness of plans, is being used inefficiently.

Apparently, it is possible to explain by this the fact that in the republic there are no large-scale economic developments and proposals, which have been supported by union organs and are aimed at the conducting of economic experiments and the checking of the economic mechanism on the scale of a sector or region.

The situation is also being aggravated by the fact that in the republica coordinating plan of scientific research in the area of the economic sciences is not being drafted.

In order to eliminate the existing shortcomings and to increase the assistance of economic science to planning and economic organs, it seems necessary to improve the planning and organization of the entire system of economic research in the republic and to turr it into an integral pert of the mechanism of planning and management. Under the conditions of the strengthening of the

goal program methods of planning this is one of the basic prerequisites of the achievement of a qualitatively new level of planning work.

The improvement of the planning of scientific research in the following directions should become the central link of the increase of the efficiency of scientific research of the economic type:

the strengthening of the centralized principles on the basis of the drafting of a Republic Coordinating Plan of Economic Research, which should become a component of the corresponding plan which envisages research in the area of the natural and social sciences;

the intensification of scientific specialization and the increase of the concentration of the forces and resources of scientific institutions on the most important problems of the socioeconomic development of the republic;

the assurance of the cooperation of the scientific institutions of the economic type of the Academy of Sciences, the Central Asian Department of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences imeni V. I. Lenin, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee and various ministries and departments.

The Republic Coordinating Plan of Scientific Research in the Area of the Economic Sciences should be formulated and approved by the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences jointly with the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee. When drafting it, it is important to ensure the efficient combination of regional, sectorial and departmental ir -erests. Here the established experience of research, the available scie itific reserve and the resource potentials of individual collectives should be taken into account. Such a statement of the question will require of the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee and the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences the serious study of the proposals of ministries, departments and scientific organizations on the thematic problem plan of economic research and the careful evaluation of their conformity to the needs of economic practice and the orders of central ministries and departments. This will increase the responsibility of those, who perform the role of the "client," for the correctness of the choice of the problems of economic research of a sectorial nature.

For the purposes of eliminating duplication and increasing the efficiency of economic research it seems advisable to specialize the subdivisions of the economic type in the following directions:

the Institute of Economics of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences--theoretical and procedural problems of regional economics under the conditions of mature socialism; the elaboration of the theoretical bases of the comprehensive improvement of the management and planning of the national economy of the republic, the organizational structures of management, the coordination of the physical-material and value proportions, the strengthening of cost accounting relations, the increase of the role of economic levers and stimuli in the development of production; the study of the problems of production under the conditions of the intensive means of development and the acceleration of scientific and technical progress.

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The Council for the Study of Productive Forces of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences--the problems of the long-range development and distribution of the productive forces of the republic; the formation of the Comprehensive Program of Scientific and Technical Progress for 20 Years and the Master Plans of the Development of the Productive Forces of the Republic.

The Kibernetika Scientific Production Association of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences--the optimization of the development and distribution of individual sectors of the national economy; the use of mathematical economic materials in economic research and planning calculations.

The Scientific Research Institute of Economics attached to the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committeo--the substantiation of preplanning projections of the socioeconomic devciopment of the republic for the future--with a territorial and sectorial breakdown; the improvement of the methods and organization of territorial planning.

The Central Asian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Economics of the Central Asian Department of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences imeni V. I. Lenin--the agrarian economic problems of the development of the republic: the formation and development of the agroindustrial complex.

The Tashkent Institute of the National Economy of the Uzbek SSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education--the problems of the increase of the efficiency of social production in the most important sectors of the national economy of the republic.

The Uzbek Affiliate of the Scientific Research Institute of Labor--the problems of the reproduction of manpower in the sectors of the national economy; the internal production reserves of the increase of labor productivity; the norm setting and organization of labor; the improvement of socialist competition.

The Uzbek Affiliate of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Consumer Demand and Market Conditions--the questions of the meeting of the effective demand of the population for consumer goods; the methods of forecasting the conditions of trade and demand.

The content of the Republic Coordinating Plan should be subord.nate to the elaboration of forecasting materials for the Comprehensive Program of Scientific and Technical Progress for 20 Years, the Plan of the Development and Distribution of Productive Forces and the Basic Directions of the Economic and Social Development of the Republic.

Such an approach will make it possible to elaborate general concepts of the socioeconomic development of the republic in the long-term and intermediate- term future on the basis of comprehensive research and studies of the economic problems of sectorial and territorial development.

The Republic Coordinating Plan will be of a comprehensive nature, and the problems in it, which are to be elaborated, will be interconnected. More

1]

special questions will be synthesized in the general comprehensive problems. Here it will be easier to observe the sequence of the inclusion of assignments in the thematic problem plan of the scientific research work of ministries and the scientific organizations subordinate to them within the allocated limits of financing.

The dates of the completion of the scientific research should be timed to coincide with the dates of the drawing up of the above-indicated set of plans or should even lead them slightly. The role of science as a "prospector" of future events will appear precisely in this. This is all the more important as the proposals on individual aspects of the long-range development of the economy of the republic are submitted to the USSR State Planning Committee, as a rule, only with the drafts of the plans.

It seems advisable to assign the organizational support of the supervision and management of economic research to the Council for the Coordination of Scientific Research of the Economic Type, which operates with the rights of a structural subdivision of the Republic Council for the Coordination of Scientific Research Work in the Uzbek SSR. The directive organs of the republic and interested organizations should receive extensive representation within the council.

The staff of the Department of Philosophical, Economic and Legal Sciences of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences will be its working organ, problem councils for the corresponding directions of economic research will also be a part of it.

The activity of the Council for the Coordination of Scientific Research of the Economic Type should be governed by a specially elaborated statute and should envisage not only questions of planning, but also the organization of studies of the most important economic problems in accordance with the comprehensive programs, the carrying out of the monitoring of their fulfillment, as well as the submittal to the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee and other directive organs of proposals on the use of the results of the conducted economic research and development.

It is important to implement as quickly as possible the necessary measures on the radical improvement of the planning and management of economic research in the republic, since this year the ministries and departments are performing active work on the formation of the five-year (for 1986-1990) plan of scientific research work.

The improvement of the organization of scientific research of the economic type on the basis of the coordination and cooperation of work will be an important factor of the increase of its intensification.

COPYRIGHT: “Ekonomika i zhizn'", 1984

7807 CSO: 1814/7199

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EXPERT APPRAISAL IN PREPARING PLANNING DECISIONS Tashkent EKONOMIKA I ZHIZN' in Russian No 5, May 84 pp 5-8

[Article by Candidate of Economic Sciences V. Kim, Chairman of the Experts Commission of the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee: "The Technical and Economic Expert Appraisal in the Preparation of Planning Decisions" ]

[Text] The expert appraisal in the narrow sense of the term is the study of some question which requires special knowledge with the presentation of a justified conclusion. A dictionary of foreign words explains the meaning of the term in this way.

Expert appraisals are of different types. The medical and legal expert appraisals are the most well-known. It is less well-known that the scientific and technical, accounting and other types of technical and economic expert appraisal are used in the management of the national economy.

The technical and economic expert appraisal is an official scientific check of the all-round soundness of proposed decisions in the area of scientific, technical and socioeconomic development and the improvement of the economic mechanism, which are made by management organs within their competence. Such a check concludes with the presentation of a conclusion, which is well- reasoned and has been approved in accordance with established procedure and for the reliability of which the experts bear personal responsibility. Owing to all this the technical and economic expert appraisal serves as an important and effective administrative means of monitoring the quality of the decisions being made on economic matters.

Therefore directive organs are devoting much attention of the questions of the improvement of the work on expert appraisal in central and republic state organs, ministries and departments, enterprises and organizations. In the materials of the 26th CPSU Congress it is indicated that "when preparing decisions on some economic matters or others the different versions should be compared on the basis of not only departmental, but also extradepartmental evaluations. It is necessary to increase the demands on planning organizations, ministries, departments, the State Planning Committee and the State Committee for Material and Technical Supply in regard to the all-round soundness of the decisions being made or proposed by them."

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In conformity with these demands and the tasks, which follow from the decrees of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers "On Improving Planning and Strengthening the Influence of the Economic Mechanism on Increasing Production Efficiency and Work Quality" and "On Measures on the Further Improvement of Planning Estimate Work," it is necessary to improve Significantly the quality of expert evaluations at all the stages of research and development, designing and the formation of plans at any level of the national economy. This applies first of all to the departmental system of expert appraisal, which is most prevalent and encompasses all the sectorial units of the national economy from top to bottom.

Here it is a question of the improvement of the work of not only sectorial (departmental) expert subdivisions, but also all organs, which examine the results of research and development, technical and economic substantiations, designs and estimates, plans of the development and distribution of works, drafts of plans and other materials. These are the scientific councils of scientific institutions, the technical and economic councils of enterprises, the scientific and technical councils and collegiums of ministries and departments, in the work of which scientists and highly skilled specialists are enlisted extensively.

In the solution of intersectorial problems an important role belongs to the interdepartmental expert appraisal, which is made by interested ministries and organizations, as a rule, by the setting up of special joint commissions.

However, in practice it also happens that in the recommendations and decisions, which are adopted on the basis of departmental and interdepartmental expert evaluations, questions are encountered, which do not belong to their competence and therefore cannot be accomplished at the sectorial levels. Moreover, a narrow departmental or regional approach frequently appears in such decisions. In this connection and for the checking of the soundness of the decisions being made on important and major problems a technical and economic expert appraisal is made by the USSR State Planning Committee, the USSR State Committee for Construction Affairs, the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology, the USSR State Committee on Prices and other central union organs.

The USSR State Committee for Science and Technology makes the state expert appraisal of questions of scientific and technical progress and production technology, including the technological part of the designs and estimates of construction projects. The making of an expert appraisal of the designs and estimates for the construction (renovation) of enterprises, buildings and structures, which are subject to approval by the USSR Council of Ministers, is assigned to the union State Committee for Construction Affairs.

The expert evaluation of the remaining construction projects belongs to the competence of USSR ministries and departments and the councils of ministers of the union republics. In the Uzbek SSR it is carried out by the Administration of the State Expert Review of Designs and Budget Estimates of the Uzbek SSR State Committee for Construction Affairs.

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The State Experts Commission of the USSR State Planning Committee, which examines preplanning studies on a wide range of questions and problems of national economic importance, plays an important role in the system of the organization of state expert appraisal. For example, in 1982 it examined 106 problems, which include questions of the supply of stocks and the efficient use of mineral raw material, land and water resources, nature conservation, the development of the sectors of the national economy, the construction of individual industrial enterprises and complexes and the introduction of major scientific and technical developments, the diagrams of regional layouts, the master plans of cities and others.

It should be emphasized that the expert appraisal of preplanning studies is one of the integral functions of all the subdivisions of the USSR State Planning Committee and the state planning committees of the union republics. Not by chance did V. I. Lenin link the need to give legislative functions to the USSR State Planning Committee with the important role of its expert evaluations in the settlement of state matters.

With the complication