THE IMPORTANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT FOR INNOVATION AND INVESTMENT PROCESSES TO ENHANCE RURAL AREAS DEVELOPMENT IN A COMPETITIVE ECONOMY

Abstract

The article provides insights into implications of modern competitive economy for the national economic development and argues that in the new business realia it is critical to search for internal reserves for socioeconomic growth at all levels of administrative and territorial entities including socioeconomic development of rural areas based on natural, technological, human and other factors aimed at attaining competitive advantages. The study demonstrates that in the context of innovation and investment processes, building appropriate infrastructure is the priority objective to boost rural areas development. Such approach will contribute to creating an attractive investment environment, shaping an innovative structure of rural areas able to provide a full chain of creating and disseminating innovations and new technologies in production, enhance investment and innovation capacity of rural areas, modernization and change of territorial industries. The study identifies the terms and determinants in building effective infrastructure support for facilitating innovation and investment process of rural development and its properties that arise within the competitive economy paradigm. Apart from that, the study presents a framework of endogenous and exogenous factors affecting the infrastructure support for innovation and investment processes to foster rural development in Ukraine. The following factors are discussed as the most critical ones: legal, financial, investment-based, organizational, managerial, psychological, motivational, economic, consulting, informational, professional, scientific, industrial, technological, marketing, socioeconomic, etc. The summary outlines the key vectors of institutional, organizational and economic transformation that will promote building effective infrastructure support for further innovative development of rural areas.