Competitive attractiveness of regions as a target of development strategies

The article discusses the competitive attractiveness and improvement of the characteristics of the regions’ social and economic space that may attract resources and consumers. Competitiveness in such progress ensures the acceleration of the overall development of the country and individual territories. The article substantiates and tests by data from the Russians regions of the Southern Federal District the hypothesis that an increase in certain characteristics of competitive attractiveness in areas which are relevant for a given region and currently in demand by external and internal consumers can be identified and selected as the goals of strategic plans the achievement of which can be controlled and monitored. The aim of the study is to develop and test a methodology for assessment and analysis of the competitive attractiveness of the regions for the selection of their target development priorities. The goal is implemented by means of developing methodological tools and testing through the analysis of the competitive potential of territories. The methodology is based on a set of social and economic factors such as economy, innovation and qualityof life. In order to take into account the interdependence of factors while developing strategic plans, the authors provide a matrix of correlations of estimates according to the innovation factor of the competitive potential with the estimates of other factors and an integrated assessment of the factors mentioned above. The analysis of the assessments of regions’ competitive attractiveness made it possible to come to the conclusion that the greatest lag and differentiation in terms of indicators among territories is observed in the regions of the South of Russia from the point of view of the innovation potential and innovative attractiveness. Regional authorities can take into account the results of this research while developing strategies for the regions.