The abstract presents a critical review of the existing approaches to the assessment of the sustainability of the region that defines the development level of the social and economic system. The authors conducted the assessment of sustainability of the biggest region of Kazakhstan, Almaty oblast. The city of Almaty is a city of republican status and is not administratively part of Almaty oblast. The findings showed that in terms of dynamics the development of Almaty oblast as such is characterised as very close to being a sustainable one. Regardless of the fact that environmental and economic subsystems have shown stable growth, the social subsystem has features of instability.

The purpose of the article is to study the problems of competitiveness of the regional economy. In modern market conditions regions compete with each other for attraction of investment resources (public, private or foreign), together with all sources of resources, as well as markets for their implementation, attracting taxpayers. At the same time, regions are independent subjects of the national and international markets. In this connection, the issue of ensuring competitiveness of the regions of Kazakhstan today is very relevant to us. One of the main goals of the Government of Kazakhstan is to ensure sustainable growth of the country's economy through diversification of its production base and implementation of the National Strategy for Territorial Development. Nevertheless, the prerequisites for regional competitiveness are laid at the national level. Sustainable development of regions is possible only in the presence of favorable conditions in the country, such as a macroeconomic environment conducive to growth, employment, stability, taxation and regulatory systems that stimulate business development and job creation. Provided the macroeconomic environment is properly controlled, microeconomic reforms aimed at overcoming market failures that hinder the country's competitiveness can only be effective at the regional and local level. In fact, most of the country's comparative advantages are determined by the specifics of its regions, and an effective national competitiveness strategy requires that the specifics (both opportunities and weaknesses) of the regions be taken into account. It is important to remember that the competitive development of a region is a multidimensional and multifaceted process.