Sustainable Development Potential of an Old Industrial Region: The Case of Ukraine

Abstract

The significance of this study is in the interpretation proposed by the authors of the definition of 'sustainable development potential of an old industrial region'. The authors have identified and systematised the main components of the sustainable development potential of an old industrial region according to the main classification attributes such as finance, ecology, food security, sociocultural state, infrastructure, marketing of the region, and industrial production potential. The article has a theoretical character and is based on system-structural methods, comparative analysis, graphic method and logical generalization synthesis, induction and deduction, and dialectical and SWOT analysis. The features of the sustainable development of an old industrial region are the concentration of cities around large industrial agglomerations, environmental pollution, and the use of Industry 3.0 and Industry 2.0 obsolete technologies in industrial production. It has been proven that the complex problem of modernization in old industrial regions of Ukraine by transitioning to Industry 4.0 technologies requires necessary decisions to be taken at the level of state and local authorities, as well as the level of industrial owners.