Digitalization of the Economy as a Factor of Sustainable Development in the Regions of Russia and Belarus

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.