Irkutsk region has a serious intellectual, industrial and
natural resource potential, has a favorable geographical position, its own scientific and educational complex. The region has a number of competitive advantages, among which the main place is occupied by:
1) the relatively low cost of energy;
2) large reserves of available minerals;
3) powerful industrial potential;
4) significant forest resources;
5) the presence in the territory of large transport hubs;
6) a developed scientific and educational complex, the concentration of skilled labor potential;
7) rich water resources;
8) unique recreational resources.

The strategic goal of the development of the region is to create a comfortable living environment. The region should be among the five constituent entities of the Russian Federation - leaders in terms of the level and quality of life of the population. The innovative development of the region will be aimed at solving the following main tasks:
1. Improving the energy efficiency of the economy, ensuring uninterrupted, safe and economical energy supply to the economy and population of the region.
2. Integrated processing of natural resources. The main priority is the forest complex.
3. Ensuring food security of the region, mainly due to its own production of agricultural products, raw materials and food, development of the local food industry with the simultaneous development of rural territories as a single industrial, socio-economic, territorial and natural complex.
4. Restoring the status of the region as a business, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Siberia, turning the region into one of the outposts of the Russian Federation in cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
5. Tourism development.

The main industries of the region are:

• forest
• woodworking
• pulp and paper
• mining
• engineering

Currently, the spatial development of the Irkutsk region is based on the formed large industrial territorial production centers of Irkutsk (mechanical engineering, chemical production, metallurgy), Bratsk (woodworking, metallurgy), Shelekhov (metallurgy), Angarsk (petrochemicals, polymer production), Cheremkhovo (mining and coal enrichment), Sayansk (chemical production), Ust-Ilimsk (cellulose production), Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky (mining and processing of iron ore), Ust-Kut (oil and gas production, woodworking a) and Bodaibo (gold mining). These territories form the spatial framework on which the socio-economic development of the region rests.

The extraction of fuel and energy minerals in the region is represented by the extraction of coal, brown coal, oil and gas. The development of the mining industry in the Irkutsk region largely determines the activities of the largest gold mining companies in the region. A strategic project in the development of the gold mining industry is the development of the Sukhoi Log gold ore deposit.

The leading enterprise in the production of vehicles and equipment is the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of Irkut Corporation PJSC. The plant is implementing a large-scale project for the serial production of the civilian main aircraft MS-21.

The Irkutsk region has all the conditions for the development of the tourism industry: attractive and well-known tourism resources, modern infrastructure, trained personnel, and growing interest in the region from Russian and foreign tourists. In the field of tourism development, the largest project is an investment project to create a tourist-recreational cluster “Baikal Gate” within the framework of the project for a special economic zone of tourist-recreational type in the Slyudyansky district of the Irkutsk region. This project has the status of a priority investment project of the Irkutsk region and is included in the list of activities of the State program of the Russian Federation “Development of culture and tourism” for 2013-2020. The implementation of the project will allow to develop priority areas of tourism in the Slyudyansky district (the city of Baikalsk): environmental, business, sports, sightseeing, health-improving, water, cruise.

• Scientific institutions subordinate to the FANO located in the Irkutsk Region (Irkutsk Scientific Center SB RAS):
• Baikal Museum of the Ints;
• East Siberian Institute of Environmental Health Research;
• Institute of Geography VB Sochava SB RAS;
• Institute of Geochemistry A.P. Vinogradov SB RAS;
• Institute of System Dynamics and Control Theory named after V.M. Matrosova SB RAS;
• Institute of the Earth's Crust SB RAS;
• Institute of Energy Systems L.A. Melentyeva SB RAS;
• Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS;
• Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry named after A.E. Favorsky SB RAS;
• Irkutsk Research Institute of Agriculture;
• Irkutsk Scientific Center of Surgery and Traumatology;
• Irkutsk branch of the Institute of Laser Physics SB RAS;
• Limnological Institute SB RAS;
• Scientific Center for Family Health and Human Reproduction;
• Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry SB RAS