REGIONAL INNOVATION AS VIEWED BY THE EXPERTS (ACCORDING TO THE SOURCES ABTAINED IN TOMSK REGION)

Despite the dominance of the commodity sector in the regional economy, many experts expressed the need to transition to an innovative development. Such transformation contributes to the modernization of both the regions and the country as a whole. In this sense, Tomsk is a good example of how science and education can contribute to town formation. Development and introduction of high technologies are taking place in the framework of a special economic zone, which is also sometimes known as Techno-innovation Zone (TZ). Such zone has been functioning in Tomsk already for more than 10 years. This article attempts to examine the impact it has on the development of Tomsk and the region as a whole. Moreover, it tries to assess innovative development of the region via the introduction of the high-tech technologies as viewed by the scientific elite of the city. Research has shown that the functioning of the special economic zone had a positive impact on the development of the region. For instance, modern technological platform was set up in Tomsk. It hosts all city's high-impact companies. The emergence of TZ gave an impetus for the construction of roads and new routes. Last but not least it strengthened the image of Tomsk being as one of the innovative centers of Siberia. At the same time, there are a number of threats, hindering the neo-industrialization of the economy. These include factors such as a small fraction of the innovative developments being introduced in production, diverging opinions of the scientific and business communities, copyrights violations, low investment, and inadequate infrastructure. Nevertheless, Tomsk has an opportunity to strengthen its position among the innovative cities, by focusing on the introduction of high-tech developments. Also, it is very important to give due attention to the quality of innovation policy and investment climate, as well as the creation of social and economic conditions for conducting innovative activities by developing urban environment. Implementation of the above conditions will create the necessary prerequisites for the development of human and cultural capital, in other words - creative professionals, who lie at the core of the innovation economy and are able to work in the field of high-tech production.