DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT “AZERBAIJAN - 2020: OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE” Project innovations. In other words, it is necessary to lay the foundations of transition from a traditional economy to a “knowledge-based economy” now and prioritize the appropriate development of human capital, which is a decisive factor for this. Along with putting forward relevant requirements for the formation of the economic model, this also leads to drastic changes in the education system and increases the importance of such components of education as additional and lifelong education and signifies the growing role of ICT and virtual education and knowledge of computer networks. At the same time, the importance of intellectual property, the main mission of which is to stimulate creativity and innovation and support the regulation of the market, will also increase. 3. Globalization, which brought great risks along with broad opportunities, has increased the tendencies of free production on the global scale, trade, capital flight and labour migration. The uncertain nature of development in countries of the world strengthened even further and the countries regarded as centres of power that have a decisive role in determining the dynamics of the world economy were joined by new countries – China, India, Brazil and so on. In turn, this affects economic and trade relations and the redistribution of resources and also leads to the strengthening of international competition. The next period will be characterized by the change of the balance between the main centres of the world economy, its reconstruction in this regard and the strengthening of the role of regional economic unions. This opens new opportunities for Azerbaijan in terms of foreign economic integration and allows it to prefer the global context in the direction of socio-economic development, go beyond the local regional framework and benefit from involvement in the economic relations and markets of various economic areas. Currently, the special weight of economies developing both as the destination and source of foreign investments is increasing. It is predicted that during the post-crisis period, the pace of economic growth in high-income countries will be about twice as less as in developing countries. As a result, developing countries will be the main locomotive of global economic growth. 4. One of the characteristic features of globalization is the spread of “negatively charged” processes along with such a positive factor as the spread of technologies and innovations and the ability of these processes to “take over” the countries involved in worldwide economic integration. From this point of view, the global economic crisis, which began in 2008 and is now continuing on a new wave, stands out for its scope in history. The Azerbaijani economy was quite well-prepared for the global crisis and maintained the surplus in the net international investment position and the stable rate of the manat despite high investment risks at the time of the crisis and the influence of the wave of devaluation in neighbouring countries. This was possible due to the rational macroeconomic and 7