The drastic changes taking place in the global economy are largely not accidental. They are dictated by the manifestation of many strategic factors that form certain trends of different duration, level and scale. A variety of global trends are translated to regional and national levels, creating new challenges for society and the economy, the consequences of which are becoming more and more unpredictable. The appearance of destabilizing factors in conditions when the resource base is simultaneously exhausted and the required time for searching, justifying and making long-term strategic decisions is reduced, leads to the fact that the price of an erroneous choice becomes the highest price already at the early stages of formulating long-term guidelines. This emphasizes the urgent need to choose a proven methodology for the development and implementation of strategies that can not only determine long-term guidelines for the development of the strategized object, but also absorb and take into account a whole range of strategic factors, build on their basis a system of interrelated elements that will ensure consistent and effective implementation of the intended doctrine. The surge in demand in strategy at the end of the XX century, and due to the low level of the culture of strategizing, including the use of a whole set of methodologically incorrect and unjustified strategizing tools, led to the confusion of such concepts as “strategy”, “forecast”, “tactics”, “plan”, “program”, “project”, which spontaneously gave rise to a lot of strategic documents basing on the methodology, which is based on structural errors. The article considers one of them, which is still evident at the zero stage of strategizing, but already leads to a critical failure, and which is the choice of an approach to scanning the external and internal environment. It is shown that SWOT analysis, which is often used to develop strategic documents, is untenable, and documents based on its results are not strategic. In turn, OTSW analysis is justified as a method of scanning the external and internal environment, corresponding to strategic thinking and leading to the construction of practical and effective strategies for innovative development. The conclusion is made about the formation of a new strategizing culture, due to the transition to a proven methodological approach to the development and implementation of qualitative strategies based on the results of OTSW analysis.

Transit communications and infrastructure facilities are basic conditions of countries’ spatial social and economic development. Cargo transportation services make up more than 50 per cent of the global export of transport services. Unique geographical position of Russia between Europe and Asia, existing border sea routes provide the country with the opportunity to become a part of global traffic flows and, thus, maintain the development of transit and export-import potential bound to the “entry points” into the world transport system. Domestic sea ports’ activities and their rapid modernization development can be predicted due to the fact that being part of the infrastructure they maintain communication in the area and the national economy’s integration into the global economy. Each sea bordering region of the Russian Federation solves the problems of developing separate ports. In the south they pay great attention to development of transport potential of the region by means of complex development of regional transport hubs, in particular, creating special economic port areas. Northern regions are more oriented towards developing the Northern Sea Route ports which provide exploration and production of hydrocarbons, and arrange northern supply to hard-to-reach regions. The Baltic region is characterized by tough competition with the Baltic states’ ports, and they have to reinforce import-export and transit potential of the country connected with the emerging positive changes in the direction of freight traffic. In perspective, the North-West Federal District is supposed to become a platform for several large-scale strategic infrastructural projects. As a result, a transport and transit area will be created to increase the volume of international and domestic transportation and the throughput of the regional seaports. Life-supporting function of port infrastructure is the strategic factor of the development of the total transport system of Russia due to its vast territory. Therefore, strategic regulation and programs have been developed at the federal level. They function as valid regulatory legal acts, are part of the total state government system and maintain national security and connectedness of Russian territory and stable economic growth. Strategic significance of these documents for sustainable social and economic development of the Russian Federation and its regions required analysis and systematization of Decrees, Strategies and Programs from the viewpoint of infrastructural factor of construction and modernization of Russian sea ports.

Global, regional, industrial and consumer trends have a determinative effect on creating tourist products and informing the target audience correctly about the basic values and offers. Due to this fact there is a growing significance of communicational strategy which leads to more effective positioning of tourist locations and building long-term relationship with consumers by means of creating brands of strategic leaders of the tourist industry. The aim is to determine the role of communicational strategy in achieving strategic objectives of the tourist industry. As a result, the study solves the following tasks: the authors study theoretical basis of developing communicational strategy, discover strategic interrelations between such categories as reputation, image and destination brand, analyze the influence of global strategic trends on the system of strategic communication, systematize the regional experience of introducing tourist marketing of the area and branding, conduct strategic analysis of strategic communication systems on the example of the key players of the tourist industry. The study is based on the general theory of strategy and strategizing methodology developed by Center for Strategic Studies of Institute of Complex Systems Mathematical Research, Lomonosov Moscow State University under the scientific guidance of Professor V.L. Kvint. The authors applied such methods as analysis and synthesis, comparison, systematization and generalization. The results of the study are as follows: the authors have developed a conceptual model of creating a unique commercial product in tourism which is based on the value approach. Since communicational strategy play a determinative role in achieving the objectives of a tourist destination and creating long-tern consumers’ associations development and realization of brand strategizing should be integrated with the strategic communication system of a tourist destination to achieve economic effectiveness.

At present, innovative activity is becoming more and more significant, and is a vital factor of maintaining economic growth of the country. When realizing innovative scientific and technological projects it is possible to make well-grounded managerial decisions basing on the performance indicators within the technology readiness level (TRL) assessment model. The authors study the TRL assessment model and present a set of performance indicators of similar Russian TRL model. On the example of monitoring of suggested performance indicators of the eighth technology readiness level the authors reveal the factor producing the most serious impact on one of the factors (profitability of production) and present an option for solving the problem, and a neuron network has been trained to control the indicator. The results obtained have revealed the possibility of adapting the TRL scale for the needs of high technology businesses which implement technological development programs. The results can be used in realization of innovative scientific and technological projects to reduce the costs at different life cycle stages and to increase the efficiency of the managerial decisions taken.

The authors compare UNIDO methodology and traditional methodology of evaluating effectiveness of investment which was widely spread in the Soviet time. The latter has been undeservedly forgotten, but at the same time it is a pragmatic alternative for the UNIDO methodology. The article depicts the basic drawbacks of the UNIDO methodology. The main one is its inconsistency of interests of an economic entity to the growing production and cost savings. If an economic entity implements this methodology, it is likely to face great risks of various nature. The traditional approach makes calculations significantly simpler, increases their accuracy and reduces risks. The author points out the basic provisions of the classical methodology, such as evaluation of the efficiency of capital investments, basic indicators of economic effectiveness of investment, production tasks which require evaluation of economic effectiveness of investment. Use of the traditional approach makes it possible to significantly reduce the costs for preparing the feasibility study of an investment project. The author considers the criteria of effectiveness of the traditional methodology which are adapted to the modern practice. The main advantages of the classical methodology are its focus on economic result which corresponds to the trend on the economic growth and social results in realization of national projects. Classical methodology of evaluating the effectiveness of investment projects can become a competitive alternative of a widespread UNIDO methodology. The alternative can be of interest for the federal executive bodies (for example, for the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation) in evaluating effectiveness of the national investment projects.

The article is devoted to the acute problem connected with managing autorecycling projects in accordance with the environmental security requirements and economic effectiveness. Lately, the problem of environmentally-friendly recycling of used automotive components has become very urgent in Russia due to the increasing number of cars in the country. The existing car recycling programs do not solve this problem as they deal with cars and do not recycle separate car components. Environmental fee (or eco fee) existing in our country does not cover all range of used automotive components as well, and the existing organizational and economic autorecycling mechanism makes it impossible to solve environmental problems according to the market approach in full. Therefore, it is essential to develop a mechanism for managing autorecycling projects which would involve both effective market approaches and the state ones. To this end, the authors suggest exploiting public-private partnership (PPP) to increase environmental and economic efficiency in implementing autorecycling projects. The focus is made on such forms of public-private partnership as delegation of control and concession. It is suggested to make concession of infrastructure facilities and areas for stocking used automotive components which are not recyclable. Some government functions in managing automotive components’ sorting can be delegated as well as management of finance. As a result, exploiting PPP tools in managing autorecycling projects will provide the opportunity for maintaining “transparency” of financial flows in handling used automotive components, recyclers will be encouraged to introduce safe and modern recycling technologies and the level of environmental risks in managing autorecycling projects will be reduced.

The article deals with comparing taxation conditions of a range of countries which can be applied for IT companies as the subjects of digital economy. The author examines the peculiar features of tax privileges, tax planning tools and optimization for running digital companies in such countries as Estonia, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Malta and Ireland. These countries are included in a number of international ratings and are highly estimated by foreign experts as regards the level of convenience of doing IT business. The author especially focuses on the financial calculations of possible ways for tax optimization and the key features of implementation of the extremely popular in European countries IP-Box regimes. In conclusion the author concentrates on the patterns and trends within the tax jurisdictions under consideration including the one regarding the existing treaties on avoiding double taxation. He points out that it is possible to use the international experience in order to create competitive taxation of digital companies in Russia as part of developing addenda to the package of measures (effective 01.01.2021) which is also called “tax maneuver”. In particular, it is suggested that income tax rate for IT businesses in Russia should be altered taking into consideration the foreign countries’ indexes. Moreover, the author presents his ideas on the components of possible use of such measures as “digital residency” as part of the second package of “tax maneuver” measures. The author makes a conclusion on the importance of implementing non-taxation measures for maintaining rapid development of IT-industry in Russia and enumerates the most essential directions and problems of the IT-society and the possible ways of their realization.

The article discusses the mechanisms of distribution of funds within a group of companies and analyzes the risks that arise in various situations. It is shown that the risks depend on the type of interdependence of companies, the impact on subsidiaries, etc., the classification of holdings with the characteristics of key concepts is given. The classification criteria are considered: the type of interdependence of companies, the influence of the parent company, the nature of the relationship. Examples of the structure of a group of companies are presented. The processes of financing the operating activities of the holding company, in which the management company distributes the group’s funds to its subsidiaries in order to make the business profitable, are analyzed. The processes of financing investment projects of subsidiaries involving the provision of specific projects with resources are analyzed and the current options for reallocating funds in the group are shown, taking into account the risks. The methods of using business contracts, intra-group loans in the redistribution of money within the group are considered. The variants of their optimal use in various situations are shown. There are three main types of risks that you need to pay attention to first of all: a decrease in net assets, cash gaps and taxes. Taking into account these areas, the methods of reducing the risks of intra-group financing are described and recommendations are given on what to do in these situations. The formula for calculating net assets is presented, the calculation of which is carried out in order to compare the value of net assets with the value of the authorized capital. Methods of reducing the risk of cash gaps are considered. Tax risks are analyzed and measures to reduce them are proposed.

Due to tough competition and economic sanctions domestic mechanical engineering enterprises are in a permanent search of sources of increasing their performance efficiency. One of such sources is the internal potential of a company. Engineering enterprises possess a large stock of internal reserves and their exploitation provides the businesses with competitive advantages in the global market. Internal reserves are the source of a company’s investment. Reduction of production costs at the expense of internal reserves is an important direction of increasing an engineering company’s performance efficiency. Currently, there are no universal methodical tools to manage internal reserves of reducing production costs at the mechanical engineering enterprises. The study is aimed at describing the process of management of internal reserves of reducing production costs which is applied at one of engineering plants. The author outlines the experience of an mechanical engineering company on managing internal reserves of reducing production costs. It is based on the marginal analysis method which makes it possible to find a product with high margin profitability. The author adduces the sequence of all stages of the management process and the calculations on certain types of products, and reveals reserves for reducing production costs according to the directions of search for them. The experience presented in the article will be a good example for the other engineering enterprises and will provide them with the opportunity to reduce production costs and increase their performance efficiency avoiding any borrowed funds.