THE POST-SOVIET SOUTH: OIL, INNOVATION, AND SCIENCE
Ketevan KIKILASHVILI
Ketevan Kikilashvili, Graduate student at the Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Vice Director, Research and Innovation Hub (Tbilisi, Georgia)
ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the relationship between the development of the economy, the oil industry, science and innovation in the countries of the post-Soviet South (Central Caucaso-Asia, or Central Caucasasia). The oil industry makes the oil-producing countries of Central Caucasasia relatively richer than those where oil is not produced (or produced in small amounts), but the development level of science in these countries is clearly insufficient for the sustainable development of the oil industry and these countries as a whole. This is demonstrated by the author based on economic and scientometric data for both oil-producing Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and non-oil-producing Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is shown that scientific collaboration with Russia is probably more promising for the economy.