Sustainable development: specifics of primary and secondary digitalisation in depressed regions (on example of the Russian Federation)

Abstract

Digitalisation processes in modern society are occurring at a rapid pace. Under the influence of transformative information technologies and innovative business models, special technological and organisational opportunities for society are emerging. However, such transformations occur unevenly, and as a consequence, there is a noticeable differentiation in the level of mastering new and promising technologies and introducing new solutions in important industrial, social, and other spheres. At the regional level, digitalisation processes have their own peculiarities. The first determining factor in the development of digitalisation is the achieved level of socio-economic development of the region. The next factor is the geographical and climatic peculiarities of the region, which do not always provide for the effective development of certain industries. The primary level is the basic level and includes the analysis of indicators characterising the access of the population and organisations to the Internet. Due to the enormous difference between the achieved level of socio-economic development of regions and their existing potential, it is promising to assess the level of digitalisation, and special attention is paid to the results for depressed regions of the Russian Federation. The key objective of the analysis was to develop directions for improving not only digital processes in depressed regions, but also the possibility of improving their socio- economic development. Based on the statistical method, rating and forecasting method, the level of digitalisation in the Russian regions was analysed. The evaluation results show a sufficient level of primary digitalisation, but there are significant problems in the development of secondary digitalisation.