Global Structural Transformations and Trends in Ukrainian Economy

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Part 2. Innovative Factors of Structural Change in the Context of the Forth Industrial Revolution

The second part of this article exposes that the world economy has entered into a period of radical transformations driven by a new wave of technological innovation, which are now characterized as the Forth Industrial Revolution. These transformational processes are systemic and lead to the formation of qualitatively new structural characteristics of the global economy, which in their aggregate signify the emergence of a new technological paradigm and a new socioeconomic organization of human life. These changes will have a cardinal impact on all the structures of the world economy, the modes of business organization as well as the priorities and methods of macroeconomic regulation and support to economic growth and development. The mentioned global changes will be a radical, essentially existential, challenge not only to a number of industries, but also to national economies.

Ukraine's participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is greatly complicated by the existing structural disproportions in the economy and its educational and scientific potential. The most dangerous disproportions in the structure of education in Ukraine are associated with a very low percentage of tertiary specialists in the field of natural sciences. Ukraine significantly lags behind the world's innovation leaders, including not only developed but also many developing countries.

The author postulates that Ukraine has faced the dilemma: either to join the leading trends of economic development under the impact of the latest technologies, or to find itself in the periphery of the world economy and the entire global civilization. The answer to this challenge can be found only within the framework of a strategically oriented national development policy, a change in the economic philosophy (outlook) underpinning economic behavior in Ukraine, and the spread of a "culture of longterm vision" among managers at all levels. The principles of Ukraine's longterm policy should encompass stimulation of demand for innovative products and corresponding changes in consumer preferences, diversification and changes in the structure of capital (the priority of human and intellectual capital), rendering the factor of trust the role of a key economic asset, reliance on the country's own cultural basis of development, and provision of development security.

Source:

Volodymyr Sidenko

Senior Research Fellow


Education:

  • Taras Shevchenko National University, Kyiv, Faculty of International Relations and International Law, Department of International Economic Relations (1977)
  • Doctor of Science in Economics (2000), member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2006), author of over 200 scientific articles, including the articles published abroad (the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany, Russia, Hungary, etc.)

Work Experience:

  • Research Associate, the Head of the Institute for Social and Economic Problems of Foreign Countries, the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1980–1992), Institute of World Economy and International Relations of NAS of Ukraine (1992–2000), Institute of Economic Forecasting of NAS of Ukraine (1992–2005), Institute of Economics and Forecasting of NAS of Ukraine (2005–2012)
  • Advisor on Foreign Policy to the President of Ukraine (1994–1995)
  • Director of Economic Programmes of the Razumkov Centre (2001–2004)

Spheres of activity: research on strategy and mechanism of foreign trade, structural transformations of economy, external aspects of economic growth, global economic regulation, international economic integration, international competitiveness, foreign investment, economic relations between Ukraine and the EU and regional groupings in the CIS.

 (044) 201-11-98

sidenko@razumkov.org.ua