SMART-STRATEGIES AND INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE EU REGIONS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to generalize the foundations of formation of smart-strategy of country / region development as a factor of impact on the level of investment attractiveness. The development of globalization processes has led to positive consequences, resulting in the growth of the world’s economy. At the same time, the competition in the sphere of attracting investment resources has aggravated. Based on the analysis of indicators of investment activity of European countries and the investment attractiveness of the EU countries, it was found that the specified area is characterized by the presence of negative trends, which actualizes the need to develop tools for increasing the level of investment attractiveness. The system of factors of impact on the level of investment attractiveness of the country / region was studied. It was found that in current conditions, in addition to the traditional factors of influence on investment attractiveness, intellectual potential, flexibility, education and innovation, networking, etc. are added, which serves as the basis for the implementation of smart approaches in the formation of regional development strategies. The article defines the features of the formation of a smart approach to development strategies, which is based on the combination of technological and industrial components. It was found that the basis of smart-strategies is the specialization of the country / region, which is formed considering the resource provision and development potential of the region, the ability to diversify, the ability to achieve a high level of concentration of business entities in the region, the place of the region in the economic system. Building a regional policy based on smart-strategies will stimulate economic development, increase competitiveness and investment attractiveness of countries / regions. On the basis of the conducted research, a number of challenges related to the implementation of the smart approach were identified, namely, a high level of subjectivism and the need to ensure a high level of qualification of the participants in the discussions when implementing the mechanism of inclusive management; the growth of internal competition in the case of the formation of homogeneous specialization of several EU countries / regions; taking into account external risks, one of which is a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war; implementation of adaptive approaches in the process of formation and implementation of smart-strategies. Addressing these challenges will contribute to increasing the efficiency of smart-strategy formation for a high level of investment attractiveness of the EU regions.