Vol 7, No 3 (2020)

The article presents the results of analysis of conditions and problems of development of the SKOLKOVO innovation center. The experience of innovation activity and functioning of innovation centers abroad on the example of Switzerland is considered. It is concluded that innovation centers like SKOLKOVO contribute not only to the development of science, but also to increasing employment, improving the competitiveness of the national and regional economy, ensuring the reduction of barriers to innovation. Thus, they serve as points of both innovative and economic growth of the country's regions.

Abstract. African countries have shown significant economic progress in recent years. Innovation is one of the key factors in its development. This paper assesses the features of the formation of innovative infrastructure in African countries and for the first time comprehensively examines all the components of this infrastructure, namely production and technology, information, consulting, financial, personnel, and sales. The conclusion is made about the strengths and weaknesses of modern innovative infrastructure in Africa, its role in the further sustainable development of the countries of the macroregion.

The article is devoted to the consideration of the phenomenon of crowdsourcing, the essence of which is to attract human resources from outside to search for new ideas to solve both the problems that arise in enterprises and social problems.  The author considers the importance of the human factor in the digital economy, the types of crowdsourcing and examples of its use, as well as the prospects for the development of crowdsourcing in Russia.

The article presents the features of Belgium's foreign trade in 1995-2018. The dynamics of foreign trade indicators of Belgium (export volume, export volume, foreign trade turnover and foreign trade turnover) is analyzed. Regularities are revealed between the dynamics of the main indicators of foreign trade and world and regional events. The main foreign trade partners of Belgium are highlighted, the commodity structure of Belgium's exports and imports is analyzed.

I In the article, the authors consider the cases of three Finnish concerns ("Fazer," "Fortum," "YIT") from various industries that have been successfully operating on the Russian market for a long time. The study reveals how companies managed to adapt to market conditions when entering it, and then form it in accordance with their business culture and establish themselves as leaders. The authors show how globalization and its consequences can affect the activities of companies. Separately, the article identifies sanctions and assesses their impact five years after the introduction. The results of the work also reflect the prospects for the further development of concerns in the Russian market.

We have revealed territorial disproportions in the social and economic life of the population. We have created the typology by level of social and economic development. The statistics of the administrative divisions gross regional product was laid on the basis. The principal component method was used as key analysis method. We have highlighted factors of spatial development that determine the territorial differentiation of the socio-economic life of the population by states and union territories of India. We have accessed the functioning of the country's regions falling into different types of socio-economic development. We have substantiated domestic policy measures aimed at maintaining or changing the identified development trends of the administrative-territorial units of the Republic of India.

The article is devoted to the study of trends in the population of cities in Tajikistan in the post-Soviet period. It analyzes the dynamics of the number of residents of the country's largest cities and based on the construction of Zipf curves, estimates the state of the urban settlement system for 1989-2019. The change in the ratio of 5 groups of cities in the country with different population over this period was determined and the features of their placement were revealed. The article describes the multi-vector growth of the number of cities in the Republic for the identified groups of cities, as well as the features of development and the main reasons for uneven changes in the number of inhabitants and distribution across the country.