Global structural transformations and trends in Ukrainian economy Part 2. Innovative Factors of Structural Change in the Context of the Forth Industrial Revolution

The second part of this article exposes that the world economy has entered into a period of radical transformations driven by a new wave of technological innovation, which are now characterized as the Forth Industrial Revolution. These transformational processes are systemic and lead to the formation of qualitatively new structural characteristics of the global economy, which in their aggregate signify the emergence of a new technological paradigm and a new socio-economic organization of human life. These changes will have a cardinal impact on all the structures of the world economy, the modes of business organization as well as the priorities and methods of macroeconomic regulation and support to economic growth and development. The mentioned global changes will be a radical, essentially existential, challenge not only to a number of industries, but also to national economies. Ukraine's participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is greatly complicated by the existing structural disproportions in the economy and its educational and scientific potential. The most dangerous disproportions in the structure of education in Ukraine are associated with a very low percentage of tertiary specialists in the field of natural sciences. Ukraine significantly lags behind the world's innovation leaders, including not only developed but also many developing countries. The author postulates that Ukraine has faced the dilemma: either to join the leading trends of economic development under the impact of the latest technologies, or to find itself in the periphery of the world economy and the entire global civilization. The answer to this challenge can be found only within the framework of a strategically oriented national development policy, a change in the economic philosophy (outlook) underpinning economic behavior in Ukraine, and the spread of a 'culture of long-term vision' among managers at all levels. The principles of Ukraine's long-term policy should encompass stimulation of demand for innovative products and corresponding changes in consumer preferences, diversification and changes in the structure of capital (the priority of human and intellectual capital), rendering the factor of trust the role of a key economic asset, reliance on the country's own cultural basis of development, and provision of development security.