FROM DEINDUSTRIALIZATION TO HIGH-TECH REVIVAL: DEFINING STRATEGIC GUIDELINES FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article examines the structural prerequisites and strategic guidelines for industrial development in our country in the context of a prolonged period of deindustrialization, as well as military destruction and the necessity for post-war recovery of the national economy. As the experience of the world’s leading countries convincingly proves, it is high-tech industries that are capable of ensuring the transition from a raw material-based model of economic development to an innovation-industrial growth trajectory. Based on a comparative analysis of the dynamics of indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita in Ukraine and developed countries, it has been proven that the national economy lags significantly behind in terms of value added and population welfare. It is substantiated that the economic leadership of most of the world’s leading countries is based on the dominance of high-tech manufacturing, which is integrated into global value chains, the development of innovative sectors, and the information and knowledge industry. The paper tracks and illustrates, in particular with statistical data, the existence of a direct correlation between GDP, the competitiveness of countries’ economies, and the volume of high value-added production. It is proven that maintaining the raw material and semi-raw material model of development hinders and limits Ukraine’s opportunities for sustainable economic growth, technological sovereignty, and integration into international production ecosystems. Strategic guidelines have been formulated for the transition from deindustrialization to a model of high-tech industrial recovery with an emphasis on the development of mechanical engineering, electronics, the defense-industrial complex, digital and green technologies. The necessity to modernize and activate state industrial policy, apply updated approaches to identifying strategic sectors of the national economy, form innovative ecosystems, and integrate our country’s economy into European value chains as prerequisites for Ukraine’s economic recovery has been substantiated.