Abstract:
The purpose of the study is to justify the prerequisites and priority lines
for the transformation of regional cooperation between countries in the context of
global digitalization. The objective of the study is to assess the foreign economic
potential in the system of integration cooperation between the regions of Russia and
Belarus, on which the contribution of the digital technologies to be introduced in
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the macroeconomic parameters of
the national economy, including the scope and nature of diffusion of SMEs foreign
economic activity, is contingent. Economic and statistical studies were conducted in
the composed information-analytical environment, mainly using the example of the
Mogilev region. Studies have found out that the introduction of digital technologies in
business processes is a driver of the performance of SME’s foreign economic activity
amidst the regional integration of the Russian Federation (RF) and the Republic of
Belarus (RB). It has been established that both information communication tools
under use (electronic document flow management, application of e-commerce platforms
to gain access to international markets), and the very concept of arranging
a foreign economic activity need changes. The study revealed a low involvement
of the region in the foreign trade turnover of the republic; inertia and geographical
imbalances in the foreign economic turnover and its commodity composition; underutilization
of potentials of cross-border cooperation, including SME, organizations
of free economic zone “Mogilev” (enterprises of machine engineering, construction,
wood-processing, highway transport industries). The foreign economic activity of
SME in the Mogilev region is distinguished by a prudent approach to the product
range structure of export and import turnover with a high share of intermediate and food products and a lowproportion of investment and high-tech goods. To solve these
problems, governments of the countries in the segment of SME’s foreign economic
activity approved the introduction of economic digitalization tools that would ensure
the sustainable development of the regions.
