Foreign investors and investment attractiveness in the sphere of digital economy in the post-soviet countries

Abstract

The authors of the article consider the reasons for the gap between the CIS countries and the leading countries in the digital economy, as well as the investment attractiveness of this area for foreign investors. If in the last century, oil and mining enterprises were the drivers of the economy, then in the 21st century, digital technologies not only penetrated into all spheres of life, but also became the main driving forces of the world economy, which explains the relevance of this article. When writing the article, a comparative analysis and a historical method of researching events, phenomena and processes were used that had a significant impact on the current situation in the CIS countries. The study showed that the CIS countries are importers of ICT, and the share of exports is insignificant. This is due to the stagnation of digital technologies in post-Soviet countries, since the countries of the post-Soviet space lived in a socialist regime for almost 70 years, which hindered the development of business in the field of high technologies. Also, the difficulties of patenting inventions, insufficient funding, the lack of appropriate regulatory legal acts, an insufficient level of infrastructure further increase the gap from digitalization. In addition, the economies of the CIS countries are still oriented mainly towards traditional industries and low technologies, where foreign investments are mainly directed.