Global trends of inclusive development: challenges and opportunities for Ukraine

The article examines global development trends affecting income distribution and the state of economic inequality. It exposes that the dominant model of neoliberal economic liberalisation turned to be, in recent decades, a powerful factor of the growing economic inequality among different countries and, to a lesser extent, between different strata within national economies. The unfolding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and radical technological transformations worldwide is becoming a new factor of the potential growth of inequality due to uneven impact of this factor on different sectors of the economy and types of production, and therefore on the dynamics and profitability of various professions. The study shows that the factors of economic inequality growth are matched by countervailing factors strengthening the trend of inclusive development. Technological factors can create opportunities for income equalisation under a properly constructed strategy of technological innovations and strengthening the adaptation capabilities of different groups of workers and different social strata to structural and technological shifts. The author shows that global trends are manifested in Ukraine in a specific way, primarily due to a long period of stagnation in the innovation process within the country. However, this characteristic must be eliminated in the process of technological enhancement of the defence potential, post-war economic recovery of the country on a new technological basis, and adaptation to the conditions of EU membership, bringing development trends within the country closer to global trends and European standards. In this context, an important role, according to author, should be played by the process of active implementation within national economies of the recommendations of leading global organizations and forums dealing with issues of socio-economic development, as well as the guidelines of the European Union’s cohesion policy.