The article is concerned with the main trends of technical and technological development, which are characteristic of the world economy in the 21st century. The facts of economic history relating to technical and technological development demonstrate the periodic change in technological leadership of certain countries of the world. The system of indicators is singled out, on the basis of which the country’s place in the global technological space is diagnosed, as well as the forecasting of further trends in its development on the path of scientific and technological progress is carried out. Based on the world rankings on the total domestic costs of science, their share in the gross domestic product of the country, the cost of R&D per researcher (equivalent to full employment) shows the provisions of individual countries as to financial support of technical and technological development. The research potential is described on the basis of such indicator as the total number of researchers in a particular country. It is demonstrated that these indicators, describing in its totality the level of provision of a particular country with financial and labor resources, through which new knowledge is created, do not always indicate its success. With the involvement of the indicators of research and patent activity (which reflect the number of published articles and submitted applications for patents), as well as the global index of innovations, plus the index of development of information and communication technologies (which characterize the result of technical and technological development achieved by the country), the directions of advancement of countries in terms of technology and technology are determined. It is identified that the provision of resources for the production of new knowledge is a necessary, but insufficient condition for obtaining technological primacy in the world. It is proposed to evaluate the positions achieved by the country on the path of technical and technological development through the formation of an internal indicator, which reflects both its provision of resources for the production of new knowledge and the degree of return on their use. It is proved that this approach to the evaluation of technical and technological development allows to obtain more thorough information about its sources and factors, as well as to identify weaknesses on which the country should focus to promote scientific and technological progress.
Current Trends in Technical and Technological Development