Methodological recommendations for assessing the degree of use of the existing potential of Belarusian regions for the development of interregional relations with the participation of small and medium entrepreneurship

The article, taking into account the Chinese experience, determines the relevance of more active participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the development of interregional relations with other countries. In order to identify additional sources of increasing interregional cooperation in Belarus, the need to assess the degree of use of the existing regional potential by SMEs for the development of trade, production, investment, scientific and innovative interregional relations, as well as cooperation of regions in the field of culture, education and healthcare is substantiated. The existing methodological base for assessing regional potential, including for business development, is presented in a generalized form. The author’s methodological recommendations for assessing the degree of use of the potential of Belarusian regions for the development of interregional relations with the participation of SMEs, containing 11 consecutive steps, are proposed. The tools for conducting the assessment were the index method using statistical data and quantitative indicators; comparative analysis based on an integrated assessment of the level of development and use of the regional potential of interregional relations with the participation of SMEs in certain areas; the method of ranking regions, and the method of expert assessments was used to determine the weighting coefficients for the indicators used. Based on the results of testing the methodological development, the key trends in the area under consideration were identified: a) the prevalence of the tendency to fully use the existing regional potential in various areas of SME activity, while at the same time insufficient use of the business environment created in the regions was determined, with the exception of Minsk; b) the most complete use of the potential takes place in the production sphere in all regions, excluding Minsk region, the city of Minsk, where SME activity corresponds to the existing potential; c) industrially developed regions provide leading positions in the rating of regions in terms of SME participation in production, investment and foreign trade (Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Minsk regions); d) the leaders in the rating of regions in terms of the use of tourism potential by SMEs were Grodno, Brest region and the city of Minsk, etc.

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