Methodology for assessing the economic potential of border areas and recommendations for its use (on the example of Almaty region)

The purpose of the article is to justify the choice of methodology and system of indicators for assessing economic potential adapted to the conditions of rural border areas, as well as, based on the testing of this approach, to rank the border areas of Almaty region by the potential of socio-economic development and develop recommendations for its fuller use.The existing points of view on the content of the concept of “economic potential” are investigated, the methods used for its assessment are studied and generalized, the author’s methodological approach to determining the potential of socio- economic development is proposed, based on an index method and a system of indicators adapted to rural areas.The proposed approach is tested on the example of border areas of Almaty region, their ranking according to the integrated index of socio-economic potential is carried out, the main problems and risks that hinder their development are identified.It is concluded that it is necessary to overcome the narrow agricultural specialization of these regions and shift the focus from the development of small farms and subsidiary farms to the consolidation of agricultural formations, more complete use of transit and tourism potential, and reduce the negative balance of migration flows from border areas.Recommendations on improving the methods of state regulation of rural border areas in order to better use the potential opportunities for the development of their economy, infrastructure and social sphere are substantiated. Methods of stimulating small and medium-sized businesses and state support for the development of social and transport and logistics infrastructure are proposed.General scientific research methods are used: system approach, comparison, analogy, index analysis, ranking, generalization and concretization