Scenarios for innovative development of Kazakhstan regions and evaluation of possibilities of their implementation

The aim of the article is to study the possible scenarios for innovative development of Kazakhstan regions and to draft proposals for public authorities to implement them. This article is prepared under the grant support by the Institute of Economics of the Committee for Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (0090/GF) on the theme “A new model of industrial innovative modernization of the economy of regions” (2012-2014). The evolution of the scientific concepts for innovative development existing in global economic science is discussed in the article. The potential for innovative development of Kazakhstan regions are analyzed.The existing methods for estimating the potential for innovative development of the country and some territories are investigated. The choice of the methodological approach to the estimation of the level of innovative development of the country’s regions is explained. The indicators, characterizing innovation activity and innovation susceptibility of the economy, form the basis of the proposed methodology.The author’s methodology has been tested in Kazakhstan regions using a great amount of statistical information. The tendency for the enhancement of differentiation of the regions of the country in terms of innovative development is shown. In the article the author identifies the key issues, risks and threats to innovative development of the regions of the republic. As a result of analysis the author has established the number of proposals for the use of methods of analysis, has determined possible scenarios for the innovative development of regions and offered the recommendations for their implementation.