Perspectives for the development of the Siberian Federal District from the standpoint of knowledge economy

With the rapid development of world economy and Russia’s involvement in it more researchers face the question of whether we are ready to build a postindustrial society,  whether we are capable of joining the world chains of generating values, whether we have all the necessary conditions and factors to make a transition to knowledge economy as a basis for future society. An objective opinion on the situation considering regional potentials will help researchers identify reserves for the development of industries and territories along with perspectives. The object studied in this article is the Siberian Federal District. We have discussed the major problem that the government's strategy for the development of Siberia until 2020, focused on traditional industries and resources of the region, is implemented only partially, and tried to determine whether there are prospects for the development of the region on the basis of assessing its potential from the standpoint of knowledge economy. Hypotheses are made about the current regional conditions for transition to post-industrial economy, the factors which influence this transition. The research methods are systematization, abstraction and comparative analysis. The following conditions for postindustrial region development have been specified in the course of the study: nature resources, productive base for space industry enterprises, heavy machinery, oil extraction and recycling, machine tools enterprises, etc., along with a stable financial system in the region, fast developing information infrastructure, human capital. The core development directions are identified as space industry machinery, electronics and environmental safety. The factors stimulating and restricting regional growth have been defined from a knowledge economy standpoint. The results are in the conclusion that labor resources move to the service sector, which is common for postindustrial economy; the Ministry of economy and development is actively forming regional clusters considering macrotechnologies; there exist several problems in the development of regional scientific partnerships, including the one in the Siberian Federal University. Results should be taken into consideration while forming a regional strategy up to 2050 and also while improving the scientific partnership among the units of the Siberian Federal District. The study proved the hypothesis that the current conditions favor the development of high technological industries and formation of quality-based human resources, provided that the issues with regional financial support, anti-corruption policies and state and regional support for higher education and scientific research are resolved.