Economic and organizational issues of interregional interaction in the Union State of Belarus and Russia under the conditions of digitalization

Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation and development of economic and organizational tools of interregional interaction within the scientific and technological space of the Union state of Belarus and Russia under the conditions digitalization of national economies of the countries participating in the integration. Increasing importance of improving interregional communications is explained. Such connections allow territories to expand internal (focused on the development of human capital and least dependent on the support of the Federal government) opportunities for economic growth and adapt best management practices in the transition to the digital economy. The author assesses the current state of interregional cooperation and on this basis concludes that digital systems have the greatest impact on scientific, technological, investment and innovation interaction between the regions of Russia and Belarus. Joint programs which had been affected by the trends of digitalization of the unified scientific and technological space of the Union state were identified. Due to analyzing regional aspects of the financing joint research projects by well-known Russian and Belarusian scientific foundations, the author determines the territorial features of interaction in this sphere and comes to the conclusion that such a kind of scientific relations support reflects the strategic priorities for the development of economic sectors in the Union state and is an independent tool for translating cooperation between research and educational organizations in Russia and Belarus into a digital format with minimizing the location significance. The key aspects of improving interregional relations in the Union state in the period of digitalization have been pointed out, and recommendations on information support for this cooperation and adopting experience of Belarus in the field of government regulation of the digital economy by the border regions of the Russian Federation have been developed.