The Russia’s innovative development is the most important indicator of the competitiveness of the national economy. By implementing an innovation policy, the state stimulates the innovative activity of industrial enterprises. The study analyzes the impact of changes in the regulatory framework in the Russian Federation on the level of innovation development and the country’s position in the world ranking of innovative activity. The article reviews the tendencies of foreign government stimulation of business innovation activity on the example of the USA, India and Sweden and draws a conclusion about the significant role of the state and the need for targeted financing of enterprises’ innovative activities. Comparative analysis and diagnostics of innovation policy problems, analysis of the rating of innovation activity, forecasting the costs of technological innovation, determination of criteria for innovative activity of industrial enterprises were used as research methods. As a result, the proposed approaches to stimulate the innovative activity of industrial enterprises, taking into account the differentiation of enterprises by the addressee, channels, frequency and method of implementation of incentives. The introduction of the proposed approaches will increase the innovative activity of industrial enterprises, which will lead to an increase in the competitiveness of the national economy.