ASSESSING THE TERRITORIES' INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE "SMART" CITY CONCEPTION

Abstract

The paper considers the issues of innovative development of territories in the context of solving the infrastructure development tasks following the concept of a "smart" city. The conducted literature analysis confirmed the relevance of such a study. It was established that implementing the tasks of developing a "smart" city contributes to increasing the competitiveness of regional business structures and increasing their innovative activity, which positively affects the population's quality of life. The study aims to assess the degree of implementation of the concept of a "smart" city at the regional level in the context of introducing digitalization and implementing innovative regional development models. The use of comprehensive index assessment technology is proposed to achieve the goal. A set of initial indicators characterizing the digital transformation processes of society and the development of innovative activity is determined. The proposed approach is tested in practice according to data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. A conclusion is made about a relatively low degree of solving regional development tasks in the context of a "smart" city for most of Ukraine's regions.

The study highlighted the relevance of solving social tasks of the vital activity of territorial communities, in particular, household problems of the population, energy efficiency, transport, access to basic services using information and communication technologies in the context of the transition to the implementation of the concept of a "smart" city. This will have a positive impact on increasing the competitiveness of the local economy, the development of regional entrepreneurship, innovative activity, and ultimately contribute to improving the quality of life of the population, creating comfortable conditions for all spheres of life. The use of technology for complex integrated assessment by regional development indicators to determine the degree of implementation of the concept of a "smart" city in the context of solving the tasks of digitalization of public life and implementing innovative activity showed that for most regions the degree of solving the tasks set is insignificant. This necessitates the inclusion in regional development strategies of goals, the achievement of which will contribute to solving the tasks of territorial development in the context of the transition to the concept of a "smart" city, especially in the conditions of post-war reconstruction of territories. Prospects for further research include expanding the system of indicators for assessing the degree of implementation of regional development tasks in the context of creating the infrastructure of "smart" cities.