Economic development of rural areas in relation to the concept of building the competitiveness of regions

The article touches upon the issue of economic development of rural areas in relation to the concept of building competitiveness of regions. The author unfolds the concepts of competitiveness of regions and rural areas. Another concern of the study is to showa range of further prospects for the growth of rural areas. It is claimed that there is a need to build competitiveness of rural areas by strengthening economic capacity, resource base, human resources, marketing, production, and innovative and entrepreneurial potential. Particular attention is drawn to social and economic benefits resulted from the development of rural areas under the conditions of decentralization. The author argues that one of the basic elements forming the concept of competitiveness of regions and the target priority of agricultural policies is the competitiveness of rural areas, the development of local initiatives, and using resources that have not been previously utilized. Thus, the main direction is social and economic growth in all sectors of the economy.The integrated and multifunctional development of rural areas includes not only agricultural activities, but also the growth of entrepreneurship, tourism and creating a livable environment in such areas. It is emphasized that the functional impact on the competitiveness of each region has the following features: region’s specialization, business environment, entrepreneurship, inter-territorial capacity for the economic growth, effective collaboration of local self-government bodies, business entities and locals for solving the problem of building the competitiveness of region. The author comes to the conclusion that the economic development of rural areas depends on the growth in the agricultural sector and is aimed at solving social problems, building the competitiveness of regions and effective use of their economic capacity.