FORMATION AND EVALUATION OF THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGION'S BUSINESS SECTOR
The imperative of competitiveness has become an integral part of the country's development priorities, which actualizes the research direction. Modern experience shows that the business sector of the regional economy, performing many functions, is a powerful potential for increasing its innovation activity and the formation of a competitive environment. The main goal is to clarify methodological approaches to assessing the level of competitiveness of the business sector and to determine the place of business structures in the regional system of the country. The paper presents a scientific understanding of the theoretical foundations of the formation of entrepreneurship, the models of its development. The components of the competitiveness of the business sector are argued. The clustering of regions on the level of socio-economic development, the account of which can be the basis for the formation of regional policy of development of tools of state support of business. The indicators characterizing the competitiveness of the regional system are concretized and justified, the ranking of territorial entities on the basis of criteria indicators is carried out. The integrated assessment of competitiveness of separate regions of the southern Federal district including calculation of dynamic and maximizing indexes is presented. The results can be of both scientific and practical interest for specialists involved in the problems of ensuring and improving the competitiveness of the business sector in the region.