THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS
Keywords:
human capital, global economic transformation, strategic asset, competitiveness, dynamic capabilities, green transition, demographic dividend, resilience, Human Capital Index, transition economies.Abstract
The global economy is passing through a period of overlapping structural transformations — technological, ecological, demographic, and geoeconomic — that are reshaping the sources of growth and competitiveness. This article argues that in such conditions human capital acquires decisive strategic importance, functioning both as the enabler of adaptation to these transformations and as the principal source of resilience and long-term advantage. Drawing on human capital theory, the resource-based and dynamic-capabilities perspectives in strategic management, and evidence from the World Bank's Human Capital Index and international data on the green and energy transitions, the study first establishes why human capital is properly understood as a strategic asset rather than a mere factor of production. It then maps the principal global transformations and analyzes, for each, the strategic role that human capital plays: absorbing and directing technological disruption, supplying the skills required by the low-carbon transition, converting demographic change into a dividend rather than a burden, and building resilience amid the fragmentation of global value chains. The article shows that disparities in human capital account for a large share of the income gap between nations, examines the risks of underinvestment and inequality, and considers the strategic positioning of a transition economy through the case of Uzbekistan. It concludes that in an age of permanent transformation, the deliberate, long-term development of human capital is the most reliable strategy for national and organizational competitiveness.
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