Problems of forming conditions for increasing innovation activities in Uzbekistan

In the increasingly competitive world, several nations are striving to enhance creative ability with a view to economic growth and efficiency. Competition and innovation are important in building innovation capacity for the countries, as they provide possible pathways to accelerate the technological catch-up cycle as well as maintain productivity growth and competitiveness. Charting the innovation index will enable developed economies to catch up, as it provides countries' overall innovation output. At the heart of the innovative development of the economy is the process of finding, training, creation, implementation and commercialization of innovations, i. e. ensuring the transformation of ideas directly to innovation[1].

Companies' ability to fulfill customer standards is highly dependent on their ability to develop and produce new products at reasonable prices. Innovation is a crucial catalyst for achieving sustainable competitive advantages and is becoming one of the biggest obstacles for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular.

A system approach is needed to effectively strengthen national potential for innovation. Efficient Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) create a competent NIS

(National Innovation Systems) through the generation of competitive SISs (Sectoral Innovation Systems) in the regions. The correct number of applicable innovation actors should be composed of a RIS in three groups: academia, the public research sector and industry.

Role of innovation in economic growth

Over past years, the globe has seen an rise over expenditure in innovation, as assessed by the economies' average investments at all stages of growth. In 2017 and 2018 the use of intellectual property (IP) hit record highs. Amid economic instability, spending on innovation has increased and seems robust in given the current economic cycle. The challenge is whether this pattern will continue as global economic growth declines in 2019. There are two issues which stand out [4]:

Second, increased protectionism—in particular, protectionism that impacts technology-intensive sectors and knowledge flows—poses risks to global innovation networks and innovation diffusion. If left uncontained, these new obstacles to international trade, investment, and workforce mobility will lead to a slowdown of growth in innovation productivity and diffusion across the globe.

It is well known that innovation is one of the main factors of intensive economic growth. It is no coincidence that the most developed countries (Switzerland, 63.9 thousand dollars of GDP per capita at PPP, USA - 57.6 thousand dollars, Singapore - 87.8 thousand dollars, the Netherlands - 50.5 thousand dollars ., Ireland - 71.5 thousand dollars, etc.) top the list of countries with the highest competitive indices, according to experts from the World Bank for 2016.

Uzbekistan Global Innovation Index is about 30 points (on a 100-point scale), and the republic takes a position within the 80-90th place in World Economic Forum (WEF) ranking by global competitiveness index. The gap with the average rating of this index for the leading countries (57.8) is about 2 times. In other indicators of innovative development, the gaps are even more significant: in the number of articles in international scientific journals (per million people) - almost 400 times, in the export of high-tech products (in the structure of exports) Uzbekistan is 4.5 times behind.

A similar picture develops for indicators patent activity, the number of innovative small enterprises, the share of innovative products in the volume of output industries and sectors of the economy, the presence of innovative products in the market and other indicators of innovative activity. Nevertheless, in Uzbekistan there are certain scientific and technological reserves in cotton growing, solar metallurgy (solar physics), plant breeding, biology, chemistry, mathematics, geology and a number of other areas. This state of affairs indicates relevance and timeliness of the issue of creating the necessary conditions and macroeconomic prerequisites for intensification innovation activity in Uzbekistan.

A key challenge in all countries is to accelerate the technological development of the global economy, increasing competition for the factors that determine the competitiveness of national innovation systems. Thus, the aim is to increase the level of innovation activity of the economy. Currently, due to the reduction of the period of realization of scientific innovations to entrepreneurs/enterprises, it is necessary to quickly respond to changing national and international needs. The main factors hindering the transition to innovative economy in Uzbekistan, are underdeveloped institutions and inadequate funding science and new technologies. In Uzbekistan there are certain divided scientific and technological backlogs in cotton growing solar metallurgy breeding plants and row other directions.

Conclusion

In order to accelerate development innovation economy in Uzbekistan is proposed pay particular attention to following points:

• -    provide incentives for enhance innovation activities that arise only in conditions of amplification fair competition competitive markets for goods and services through all kinds of contests, innovation fairs, and stimulate large corporations in the development of long-term plans innovation development;

• -    efficiently use credit and investment resources. An econometric analysis of world development statistics carried out at the IPMI showed that an increase in investments in science and technology, the training of researchers and technicians employed in the R&D sector, does not necessarily automatically entail an increase in total factor productivity (TFP).

This is possible only when the index the quality of the country's institutions exceeds the identified threshold a value of 5.0 on a 10-point scale. The quality of state institutions by the corruption control index is 7.2 in Chile, 5.3 in Malaysia, 7.3 in Slovenia, and 2.1 in Uzbekistan;

• -    focus on the modernization and development of the manufacturing sector. However this process will be lengthy and should be carried out as part of carefully planned steps based on existing comparative advantages of the country. In Uzbekistan, rural the economy plays an important role in the economy. Therefore creating new manufacturing capacities integrated with agriculture, as well as the formation of new agricultural value chains can become important an element of diversification strategies.

The main factors hindering the transition to innovative economy in Uzbekistan are underdeveloped institutions and inadequate funding of science and new technologies.