Legal Security of State Support of Innovative Activities

Abstract

Problem setting. The need to transition the economy of Ukraine to an innovative model of further development is dictated by the realities of today. The unsatisfactory state of innovative activity of the majority of economic entities of Ukraine is primarily explained by the limited financial resources aimed at investing in the implementation of innovative projects. The regulatory and legal acts adopted over the last several decades, which determine the legal basis of state support for innovative activity, do not contain an effective legal mechanism for providing subjects of innovative activity with affordable financial and other support for innovative projects. The main legislative acts in the field of innovative activity are unclear and inconsistent, which makes it impossible for economic entities to receive financial support for the implementation of their innovative projects. Purpose of the research is to study the problems of legal support of state support for innovative activities and the development of legislative proposals to improve such types of state support for subjects of innovative activity as financial support for the implementation of innovative projects and preferential taxation. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The study of the legal provision of state support for innovative activities is devoted to the works of various authors, in particular: Yu.E. Atamanova, S.V. Hlibko, O.V. Rozgon, Yu.V. Georgievskogo and others. However, the majority of research is purely economic in nature and is not closely “linked” to current national and foreign legislation. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the main problems of legal support of state support for innovative activities. The work examines the main types of financial and tax support for subjects of innovative activity. Certain “gaps” were identified in the Law of Ukraine “On Innovative Activities” in terms of defining the legal mechanism for providing such type of financial support for innovative activities as crediting innovative projects. The author of the article established the inconsistency of the provisions of the Charter of the State Innovative Financial and Credit Institution with the main purpose of this type of financial support for innovative activities, such as the provision of state guarantees to banks providing loans for innovative projects. Legislative proposals have been developed to improve certain types of financial support for innovative activities, such as preferential lending, provision of state guarantees to commercial banks that provide loans for innovative projects, property insurance for the implementation of innovative projects, and financial leasing. It is proposed to improve the legislative criteria for competitive selection of innovative projects with the aim of providing certain types of financial support to subjects of innovative activity. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the legal regime of state support for innovative activities of technology parks. The imperfection of the types of state support for the innovative activity of technological parks, which are provided for by the current legislation of Ukraine, has been established, namely: 1) lack of clear legal regulation of the targeted use by the management bodies of technology parks of funds received by them as a result of providing targeted subsidies to participants of technology parks for the implementation of innovative projects; 2) the uncertainty of the order and criteria for accepting new participants into the technology parks through the conclusion of agreements on joint activities, which may have negative consequences in the form of discrimination of subjects of innovative activity; 3) the absence of special conditions in the current legislation of Ukraine for agreements on joint activities, which are concluded between the participants of technology parks and their management bodies; 4) the inadmissibility of the conditions for the creation of joint ventures, the founders of which can be technological parks, their participants and other natural or legal entities, for the majority of subjects of small innovative entrepreneurship; 5) the absence of the main goal of the activity of technological parks in the Law of Ukraine “On the Special Regime of Innovative Activities of Technological Parks”, which should be to create conditions for supporting the innovative activities of small business entities. Conclusions and prospects for the development. In order to optimize the provision of this type of financial support for innovative activity as lending, the author proposed to legally determine the grace period for the repayment of loans issued to subjects of innovative activity. In order to form an effective mechanism for providing this type of financial support for innovative activities, such as providing state guarantees to commercial banks that provide credit to priority innovative projects, it is necessary to legislate state responsibility for the obligations of state innovative financial and credit institutions. Effective and unimplemented in the legislation of Ukraine is such a type of financial support for innovative activities as the purchase (from budget funds) of fixed assets necessary for the implementation of innovative projects, with their subsequent transfer to financial leasing to the executors of these projects. In order to support the innovative activities of small business entities, it is proposed to oblige at the legislative level all technology parks that are included in the special regime provided for by law to create specialized financial and credit institutions that must provide loans on preferential terms to small innovative entities entrepreneurship.