FORESIGHTING TECHNOLOGICAL AND INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF BELARUS

This paper focuses on the foresight technological and innovative development of the Republic of Belarus. The main objective of the paper is to postulate the importance of foresight innovation for building a competitive economy. Approaches to conducting scientific and technological forecasting in the Republic of Belarus at different periods are described in this paper. World experience in conducting technological forecasting shows that most countries carry out systemic foresight studies to predict scientific and technological progress. Formation of the next Comprehensive forecast of scientific and technological progress for the Republic of Belarus for 2021–2025 and for the period until 2040 (CF 2025) was carried out in the period 2018-2019 in the Republic of Belarus. The methodology was based on the global experience of foresight research, which was adapted to account for the specifics of the functioning of the economy of the Republic of Belarus. CF 2025 makes possible: 1) to identify main promising areas of scientific and technical development of the Republic of Belarus; 2) to identify product groups and breakthrough technologies, and 3) to determine a shortlist of promising innovative products for the Republic of Belarus. The paper describes the basics of the methodology and the main stages of foresight and describes the possibilities of using the results of foresight for planning the implementation of various scenarios of economic growth and achieving sustainable development goals.