LAUSR

The influence of information is the main productive force and the subject of production for the economic systems development. Information services contribute to the competitive economy, to the provision of optimal conditions for human development, and the implementation of effective democratic procedures. The results of the socioeconomic development of Ukraine testify to the growing lag of the parameters of its competitiveness from many countries of the world and to the strengthening of differentiation in the regional development. Since the regional environment today largely determines the competitiveness of the entire national economy, it becomes important to discuss the appropriate methodological tools for assessing the development level of information and communication infrastructure (ICI) in the regions of Ukraine. Given the necessity of solving a specific problem, a methodological approach to assessing the development level of ICI is proposed, which is based on the calculations of integral indicators by the entropy method and aimed at the implementation of a group of economic regions in accordance with its defined parameters. The improved methodical toolkit takes into account consistent stages of the system for estimating indicators, which allows to analyze and evaluate the levels of ICI regions development and to obtain the value of specific digital divisions between individual regions. The implementation of the proposed scientific and methodological approach allowed to obtain the results of the assessment of the ICI development level, to allocate regional clusters depending on the ICI development levels, to identify factors that restrain the ICI development in the regions and to propose recommendations for their elimination. Oleh Kolodiziev (Ukraine), Viktoriia Tyschenko (Ukraine), Viktoriia Ostapenko (Ukraine), Tetiana Kolodizieva (Ukraine) BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES LLC “СPС “Business Perspectives” Hryhorii Skovoroda lane, 10, Sumy, 40022, Ukraine www.businessperspectives.org Assessment of the development level of information and communication infrastructure in the regions of Ukraine Received on: 23rd of November, 2017 Accepted on: 24th of April, 2018