The article examines the research of the issues of scientific and technological development of cities and regions, conducted since the establishment of the Institute of Socio-Economic Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR to the present time in the framework of the scientific direction «Socio-economic problems of transformation of scientific and innovative activities in the region». The author presents the role of the Institute in the development of important state documents of a scientific and technical nature, such as: Comprehensive program of scientific and technological progress of Leningrad and the Leningrad region, Targeted comprehensive territorial and sectoral program for the development of the national economy of Leningrad and the Leningrad region based on automation with extensive use of computer technology for 1984–1985 and up to 1990 («Intensification-90»). The subject of research in the post-Soviet period aimed at increasing the role of science and innovation in regional socio-economic development is revealed. The article describes the role of the Institute in the development of programs of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the St. Petersburg Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences aimed at studying the modernization potential of the North-West macro-region. The tasks for further research in the changed conditions of the functioning of the economy of the country and its regions are determined.

Aim. To identify the correspondence of the level of professional training of graduates of higher and secondary educational institutions to the needs of modern industry on the example of St. Petersburg enterprises, as well as to assess the dynamics of changes in the basic competencies of new employees coming from the educational environment to the labor collectives.Objectives. To determine the quality of interaction between the educational and industrial spheres on the example of St. Petersburg; to assess the level and dynamics of changes in professional knowledge and skills, social qualities and universal competencies of graduates of St. Petersburg higher and secondary vocational educational institutions.Methods. On the basis of employers’ survey the quality of training of graduates of St. Petersburg higher and secondary vocational educational institutions was assessed by such indicators as the level of professional knowledge and skills, social qualities and universal competences. The results of the monitoring were compared and the dynamics of changes in recent years in the quality of training of young specialists according to the main requirements of employers was revealed.Results. The degree of interaction between industrial structures and the system of professional education in the conditions of increasingly complex economic situation and social transformations is determined. The role of the enterprise as an economic unit is shown, modern labor relations in the production team are characterized. The parameters of employers’ assessment of the quality of training of graduates of St. Petersburg higher and secondary vocational educational institutions are proposed. On the basis of employers’ data, the level and dynamics of changes in professional knowledge and skills, social qualities and universal competencies of graduates of St. Petersburg higher and secondary vocational educational institutions who were hired in 2014-2022 in the St. Petersburg production sphere were assessed. Conclusions. The directions of activation of interaction between the education system and industrial production, professional orientation of young people, formation of the creative component both in the educational process and in the production team have been proposed. The efficiency of measures on formation of progressive labor market on the basis of improvement of quality of preparation of graduates of higher and secondary professional educational institutions employed at enterprises, their quick adaptation in the conditions of production process and labor relations is determined.

Aim. To consider the relationship between vocational education and the industrial sphere, as well as to assess the level of personnel training for industry and changes at the end of the difficult year 2022 on the example of St. Petersburg. Tasks. To determine the current trends in the training of personnel for industry, differences in the assessment of the quality of graduates of St. Petersburg universities and colleges by different groups of economic entities, the dynamics of changes in the last two years. Methods. The article analyses the processes of changes in society and their impact on the system of professional education, industrial adaptation of graduates of St. Petersburg higher and secondary educational institutions on the basis of monitoring of enterprises-members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg. Results. The article discusses socio-economic processes in modern conditions characterised by increasing technological capabilities and transformation of production relations. The influence of these processes on the social aura and structure of the society, the system of professional education and the production sphere is estimated. The guidelines for ensuring national technological sovereignty on the basis of balanced staffing of various components of the domestic economy are considered. Attention is paid to the formation of rational educational orientations among young people taking into account historically grounded mentality and creative skills, permanent generation of new knowledge and complication of production processes. The conditional division of economically active population into levels by basic categories: age, education, professional hierarchy is proposed. Conclusions. The authors proposed to intensify activities to raise the prestige of engineering labour and promote national scientific and technological achievements, the practice of transferring experience from qualified workers with experience to young people through the mentoring system, attracting teachers with experience in business and industry. Measures to achieve a balance between the system of higher and secondary vocational education and the needs of the labour market were discussed. The division of economically active population in the interests of industrial staffing into levels by basic categories: age, education, professional hierarchy is proposed.

Barite is an important raw material used in various industries, which causes great interest in the raw material base, the prospects for its development and the involvement of new deposits in the industrial circulation. The purpose of the research is to analyze the current state and development trends of the barite raw material market and to assess the possibilities of resuming barite production in the Republic of Komi. It has been shown that the consumption of barite for many years is mainly associated with the drilling of exploration and production wells for oil and gas. At the same time, the use of barite in the chemical and other industries is increasing. Despite the development of a number of deposits in Russia, a significant amount of barite is imported from Kazakhstan, China, Netherlands and other countries, which necessitates an increase in the volume of mining operations and the involvement of new deposits in the industrial circulation. The characterization of the Khoilinsky barite deposit located in the Polar Urals in the Republic of Komi, is given. This deposit possesses significant reserves of high quality barite ores suitable for obtaining concentrates for various purposes. It has been concluded that the Khoilinsky deposit can be considered as one of the most promising. Its development will significantly increase the production of barite ores in Russia, reduce imports and meet the needs of the oil and gas, chemical and other industries, and increase export supplies.

The formation of documents for strategic planning of socio-economic development is the most important task of regional and municipal governments. It can be stated that strategic planning processes have been launched throughout the country and the process of forming these documents is active at both the regional and municipal levels. However, the issues of determining, studying, and taking into account the views of interested parties when forming the goals and priorities of socio-economic development of administrative-territorial entities require methodological support and recommendations for practical implementation. In this article, an attempt is made to reveal methodological approaches and solve issues of practical implementation of identifying the interests of stakeholders on the example of a specific municipality.The proposed material is an example of determining and scientifically substantiating the strategic priorities of a municipality on identifying the interests of stakeholders.The study of the processes of formation and determination of strategic priorities for the development of a municipality based on the identification of the interests of all interested parties should become the task of further research.

The North-West of Russia urgently needs a change in the structure of the regional economy in order to reduce its dependence on the commodities exports, as well as on the import of the innovative products and advanced technologies. The article describes the individual provisions of the methodology of restructuring, arising from consideration of the economy as a hierarchical system covering the levels of a region, a municipality, an enterprise, an employee. It is assumed that the main goal of the "Region" system is to improve the population life quality. The following elements of quality of life are considered: the level of health and longevity, the standard of living, lifestyle. The article describes the role of the economy restructuring in improving the population life quality. It shows the necessity of using the standards of life quality and living standards to justify the restructuring strategy. The article also describes the hierarchy of systems, goals, processes and results of the economy restructuring. To simplify the procedure of goal-setting, the authors propose a systematic list of decomposition levels and a generalized structure of the elements of the goals structure and restructuring tasks. The article proposes the criteria for the formation of the regional economy structure. The paper proves the necessity of synchronization of measures to improve the population life quality between regional and municipal levels. It formulates the basic systemology provisions of the regional economy restructuring methodology, covering the hierarchy of necessary system descriptions, the needs of the population and business structures, the distribution of tasks to improve the population life quality across the identified hierarchy levels, the role of government, the criteria for forming an expedient economic structure, requirements for coordination and synchronization of the interactions between hierarchy levels in the "Region" system, etc. These scientific statements describe the most important properties of the hierarchical socio-economic system "Region" and its elements, which should be taken into account when justifying the strategy of economy restructuring of the North-West regions.

— The article examines the strategy of spatial development of Russia for the period up to 2025, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. A critical assessment of the development priorities of the regions of the northwest of Russia has been carried out. Based on the calculation of localization indices by types of economic activity, recommendations aimed at clarification of regional specialization were proposed.

. This paper assesses the readiness of Russia’s government authorities and local governments for a digital transformation. The digital economy’s condition in the public sector is analyzed, and the problems and possibilities of developing a digital economy in this area are identified. Based on an analysis of the current methods for assessing countries’ readiness for a digital economy and international models to evaluate the development of an e-government, a methodological approach is developed to enable the assessment of a “digital government’s” maturity level at various governmental levels. St. Petersburg was selected as the object of this paper’s research. Expert procedures, methods for gathering and processing statistical information, and fuzzy logic served as the methodological basis for this paper’s calculations. The maturity level of the city’s digital economy was identified using a fuzzy-set approach. The results of these calculations show that, despite numerous solutions aimed at developing digitalization in the public sectors of Russia and, in particular, St. Petersburg, the maturity level of the city’s digital government remains insufficient to satisfy society and businesses’ modern demands. Based on the conducted research, this paper highlights the reasons for the low maturity level of St. Petersburg’s digital government and develops recommendations on how to increase this maturity level.

Introduction. At present, the understanding that the solution of economic problems facing Russia cannot be based on standard economic approaches and models. It is gradually becoming obvious that attention to the spatial and historical features of the development of the Russian economy has not only academic interest, but also quite obvious practical significance. This can be proved on historical, or more precisely, historical and economic material. In fact, the theory of logic, taken broadly, is based on this. The development of transport and versatile tool to reduce the adverse impacts of space on the eco-economy, physical space turns into economic. The lack of transport connectivity of territories devalues the space of the economy (economic space) to a physical or geographical space. The purpose of the article is to show the role of the city of Saint Petersburg in the economic space of the North-West (understood as Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Novgorod, Pskov provinces) and Russia as a whole, through the development of railway transport in a concrete historical way. Materials and Methods. The historical method is used as the main method. In Russia, the spatial analysis method is almost mandatory, and it is also applied in this article. This method has been widely used in economic history, particularly in the study of transport. At the same time, we recognize the existence of research methods and techniques that are not suitable for this work, for example, the practice of economic and demographic analysis, especially in the neo-Malthusian version. The authors involve in the analysis the works of Russian and foreign scientists on the topic of the article. Results. The article shows the role of the city of Saint Petersburg as an economic and transport center taken in historical dynamics. The role of an important but single transport center in the economic development of Russia is revealed. The thesis is proved that the optimal choice of reference points for economic development has a positive impact on the development of the economic space of the entire country. Discussion and Conclusion. The article proves that the spatial scale of Russia contributes to the fact that the financial results of economic activity can be localized at a significant distance from the place of economic activity.

This article considers the concept and searches for the definition of a development bank, which is characterized as a financial institution of development. The author comes to the conclusion, that this institution can be deemed as an instrument of state regulation of the economy and at the same time a subject of law that performs the public functions delegated to it.

Aim. The presented study aims to examine the state of industrial exports from Saint Petersburg.Tasks. The authors consider export potential, structure, and dynamics of exports and imports of industrial products in Saint Petersburg; examine structural transformations in Saint Petersburg’s economy sectors and the impact of innovation processes on the export potential of changes in the factors that are significant for export activities.Methods. This study uses the official data of statistical agencies and customs authorities and processed results of the monitoring and survey of managers of Saint Petersburg enterprises and organizations.Results. The study assesses the effects of organizational, economic and industrial factors on the export potential of Saint Petersburg’s economic entities, changes in their target markets over the past three years, and results achieved by enterprises and organizations in terms of factors that are significant for export activities.Conclusions. Excessive state regulation and loopholes in the current legislation are significant factors that limit the export potential of Saint Petersburg enterprises and organizations. At the same time, for large industrial enterprises it is crucial to maintain national rules, international agreements and stability of production. While small and medium enterprises should focus on quality and the cost of components.

Technological integration is considered as an effective measure to increase the technological performance of Russian industrial companies and improve their adaptation to a system of industrial and economic relations based on digital technology. Common issues related to integration of new technologies are identified for Russian regions, emphasizing the importance of cluster-type economic relations. A current state evaluation and a development forecast are given for petrochemical clusters. To improve technological performance, it is proposed to use technological integration as a process of transforming production resource flows into new technologies. The experience in technology advancement accumulated by world science has been investigated and summarized. It is shown that the Russian economy is on the right path to a new technological paradigm.

The study aims to identify and analyse the dynamics of "propulsive industries", considered as drivers of economic growth and stabilizers of economic security of the regions of Russia's Western borderland in the period of geopolitical turbulence (2013-2018). We are particularly interested in the identification of industries regarded as drivers of regional economic growth during the crisis of the Russia's economy and its individual regions. The article presents the results of a study, supported by the grant of Russian Science Foundation No. 18-17-00112 "Ensuring the Economic Safety of Russia's Western Borderlands amid of Geopolitical Turbulence" and by the grant No. 18-310-20016 of Russian Foundation for Basic Research. "Propulsive industries" are characterised by a high level of the adaptation of technologies, and export and innovation potential, which determine the fifth and sixth technological order. The state and dynamics of these industries support region's economic security and the level of competitiveness, especially under difficult conditions of geopolitical turbulence (2013-2018). We conducted analysis based on data on net value added, produced by the main types of economic activity. Then, we assessed value added for enterprises and organisations subject to value added tax in the regions of Russia's Western borderland. Thus, the study is based on tax statistics provided in the reports of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation. We selected and substantiated some types of activity as the "propulsion industries" that determine the economic security, and region's export and innovation potential. They include "production of medicines and materials used for medical purposes", "production of computers, electronic and optical products", "production of aircrafts, including spacecraft, and related equipment", "information and communication activities" and "professional, scientific and technical activities". The study's statistical and quantitative base is built on data on value added tax (VAT). Based on these data, we calculated the net value added for the main types of economic activity produced by enterprises and organisations subject to VAT. The study has shown that the industry "Production of computers, electronic and optical products" is propulsive for the majority of the regions of Western borderland. The research results will be reflected in the implementation of our team's fundamental developments, including the projects of Russian Science Foundation and Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

The efficiency of spatial development represents a difficult theoretical task, at the same time in practice “on the place” this problem gains cross-disciplinary character. The strategy of spatial development of the Russian Federation until 2025 which was approved by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation on February 13, 2019 N 207-r. and creates certain prerequisites for use of effect of agglomeration for problems of regional development. The St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad agglomerations represent the most interesting object of a research, and their comparative analysis was never carried out earlier. In the article the attempt to formulate some theoretical and practical approaches to this problem is made.

The main and fundamental difference between services and goods is that the goods are materialized, objectified, embodied and alienated from the manufacturer the result of labor. In the statistical practice of many countries of the world it is accepted to classify services industries on the basis of a combination of two approaches: production-technological and functional-specialized. Financial planning stabilizes the activity of the enterprise in the conditions of risk and uncertainty inherent in market relations; stimulates management activities, providing better coordination between structural units; reduces transaction costs within the enterprise; provides management with the necessary information; optimizes the distribution of financial resources. The authors analyze the importance and role of financial planning in the service sector, trends in the development of this sector of the economy. The necessity of improving financial planning in the service sector using the tools of game theory is substantiated.

In this paper, the authors will develop recommendations for bankers on further interaction with employees to achieve maximum effectiveness Similarly, a number of tasks for bank employees will be presented, the fulfillment of which will help to avoid staff layoffs in the era of digital technologies.

The article covers the issues of ensuring sustainable city development based on the achievements of digitalization. Attention is also paid to the use of quality economy tools in managing ‘smart’ cities under conditions of the digital transformation of the national economy. The current state of ‘smart’ cities and the main factors contributing to their sustainable development, including the digitalization requirements is analyzed. Based on the analysis of statistical material, the main prospects to form the ‘smart city’ concept, the possibility to assess such parameters as ‘life quality’, ‘comfort’, ‘rational organization’, ‘opportunities’, ‘sustainable development’, ‘city environment accessibility’, ‘use of communication technologies’. The role of tools for quality economics is revealed in ensuring the big city life under conditions of digital economy. The concept of ‘life quality’ is considered, which currently is becoming one of the fundamental vectors of the human civilization development, a criterion that is increasingly used to compare countries and territories. Special attention is paid to such tools and methods of quality economics as standardization, metrology and quality management. It is proposed to consider these tools as a mechanism for solving the most important problems in the national economy development under conditions of digital transformation.