Productive functioning of market mechanisms needs in creation of according needed conditions by government for provision of own’s rights, contract’s observance, improvement of legal base in the sphere of innovations, provision of favourable financial-economic conditions, attraction of investments for innovative infastructure’s development. Thus significant meaning plays rational combination of government regulatio and market mechnisms activity, and also direct and nondirect methods of inovative activity maintenance.

This article discusses the benefits of cluster development, problematic aspects hindering the development of clusters in the Republic of Kazakhstan. According to statistics, in Kazakhstan so far failed to dramatically increase the innovative activity and effectiveness of the companies to create a competitive environment that encourages the use of innovation. Among the main problems should be attributed lack of qualified personnel, insufficient quality and availability of transport and engineering infrastructure, low level of institutional development of the cluster, limited access to foreign markets. Therefore, it is important to correlate the level of development of cooperation ties and incentive mechanisms, the level of technological equipment and organization of production, the level of competitiveness of suppliers, including the quality and technological level of the supplied products and services.

The article describes the main directions of improving the process of implementing the cluster initiative in the regional management system. It is shown that increasing the innovation activity of the region is most effective and efficient in cases of creating clusters, the formation of which is preceded by a long stage of identifying the prerequisites of cluster formation, justifying the acceptable nature and form of cluster initiative and developing a mechanism and tools for its implementation

The article analyzes the state and problems of cluster development in the real sector of the region based on the materials of the Pavlodar region. The main problem of innovative development of the Pavlodar region, as well as in all regions of Kazakhstan, in general, is the lack of innovative activity of enterprises, which is reflected in the volume, frequency and efficiency of their innovations. At the same time, most of the enterprises belonging to the real sector of the economy have sufficient resources for the development of innovative activity. However, the prospects for their interaction with enterprises in other sectors and sectors of the economy for the purpose of technology transfer are insignificant, which, in general, doesn’t meet the principles of balanced spatial development of the territory formulated by the program for the development of territories of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2020. One of the ways to solve this problem is formation and development of a cluster approach and interaction of business entities. The article assesses the efficiency of the cluster’s functioning as an institution of regional development. On the example of the metallurgical cluster of Pavlodar region, the main ways and methods of forming cluster initiatives in the regional economy are considered, a SWOT analysis of the development of the metallurgical cluster of the region is given, and its main problems are identified; identifies priority directions of clusters’ development (metallurgical cluster, including the production of final products, the cluster of railway engineering, agri-food cluster), the realization of which in the region could create the conditions for the emergence and full development of a number of new highly specialized sectors such as cluster chemistry, cluster of road and construction machinery, transport logistics cluster, cluster of modern production technologies and engineering, cluster of manufacturing components for machinery and equipment and cluster of industrial electrical engineering and equipment for power engineering. The authors also noted that the realization of regional development strategies of cluster initiatives can potentially lay the foundations for clusters “future days”, such as: cluster of resource efficiency and environmentally processing, the cluster of new energy, the cluster of innovative medicine, tourism and recreational cluster.

Main problem: The key task of the development of the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan is to ensure their sustainable socio-economic development by increasing its competitiveness and innovation activity. To develop a successful strategy, as well as for its subsequent successful implementation, it is necessary to have a clear vision and idea of what the region will be like in the near future. This vision should be clearly formulated and understood by all interested parties in order to properly coordinate efforts in achieving the set goals. In turn, based on the vision, various initiatives and activities are being formed, the implementation of which is aimed at implementing the main directions of sustainable development of the region. Purpose: to consider the main directions of the implementation of the strategy of competitive, sustainable and safe development of the region. Methods: The theoretical and methodological basis was the concepts, hypotheses and theories presented in the works of domestic and foreign researchers. The methodology is based on a systematic approach, within which methods of comparative, factorial, subject-object; structural-functional, statistical analysis and extrapolation have been applied. Results and their significance: In order to ensure the sustainable development of the Pavlodar region in the future, there is a need to form the basis for the creation of new sectors, as well as to consider opportunities to diversify the regional economy. Currently, there is a structural change in jobs, which leads to an increased role of professional services industries in the field of information technology, engineering. It should be noted that the level of development of small, medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurship in the region is at a low level, due to the predominance of resource sectors in the economy. These sectors, due to the peculiarities of the technological process, do not form a system of suppliers around themselves. However, in order to ensure the progressive development of the industrial complex in the region, it is important to create conditions for the development of SMEs in the region and, accordingly, a system of suppliers around leading manufacturing enterprises. The high competitiveness of the Pavlodar region in the future until 2030 will be ensured through the development of priority clusters, as well as through the emergence of new industrial sectors of the economy. Thus, the priority clusters of «today» include: metallurgical cluster, including the production of end products; cluster of railway engineering; agro-food cluster.