INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT: UKRAINE'S PROBLEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF WORLD TRENDS

Abstract

The development of innovative technologies today is crucial for human society. Innovations are the most effective catalyst for socio-economic progress. Their production and mass development make some states world leaders, others fall into economic subordination and are displaced to the periphery of the international community. Innovative development in modern conditions has dualistic significance: on the one hand, it is a necessary requirement and a desirable result for further civilization progress; on the other hand, it becomes an instrument of pressure of stronger subjects on weaker ones, deepens  the unevenness of world development, exacerbates global contradictions and sets the Humanity in front of new, completely unfamiliar challenges, such as the threat of  global ecological catastrophe, changes in  mass psychology and consciousness, which are gradually replacing the old ones and forming dramatically crucial social values and guidelines, and more. Therefore, the trend of innovative technologies is today one of the most urgent. In the scope of its questions, first of all, those related to the search of an environment, conditions and factors that are the most conducive to the development of innovations, at the same time all potential effects, benefits and possible threats from their implementation must be taken into account and weighted. The Ukrainian economy, together with the Ukrainian society, has undergone profound transformational changes for more than two decades, associated with market transformations of the former planning and administrative system and with consequences of the prevailing Russian political and economic influence that lasted for centuries. It should be understood that innovations for developed European countries,  which Ukraine aspires to join, and innovations for Ukraine are somewhat different things, because in Ukraine innovation transformations should touch upon all spheres of social and economic life:  the transformation of   technologically backward production,  the change in  sectoral structure of the economy in accordance with modern requirements and the promotion of inclusion of Ukraine in the system of the global division of labor. For Ukraine, innovations are the guarantee of preservation of its statehood and the only way to the civilized world.