The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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Representative of Tomsk Oblast in the Russian State Duma Ludmila Ogorodova became a member of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Regulation of Legislation in Innovations and Biotechnologies
"The working group consists of Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin and representatives of several Duma committees. High technologies are what innovation activity only starts with. In fact, it embraces all industries, including areas such as taxation, fiscal policy, and education. The working group brings together representatives of various committees and makes discussions of bills and amendments related to innovation activity more efficient. I should also say that the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast was actively involved in the work on the bill On the federal procurement contracts system and submitted a lot of amendments by the second reading of the bill."
Ludmila Ogorodova emphasized that implementation of science-based technologies developed by scientific organizations requires opening the market which takes, among other things, updating current legislation.
Currently, the Group is working on the regulatory framework for biotechnologies.
"In 2010, President Putin signed a governmental coordination program for the development of biotechnologies in Russia. The program features a large list of actions to support the implementation of the program, among them development of federal laws and amendments."
Last fall, the Russian State Duma Committee for Science and High Technology started closely working on the development of a regulatory framework for biotechnologies in Russia. An audit of current legislation (29 laws were studied) revealed that biotechnologies today are not considered as alternatives to other technologies in agriculture, bioeconomics, environment or medicine. That is not consistent with the current level of development of science and technologies in the world. There is no regulatory framework for governmental tax support or interest rate subsidies for innovative companies implementing biotechnologies; no support is provided in funding R&D initiatives; no preferences exist to stimulate the development of a biotechnology-based products market. The Committee’ expert council will implement actions to update the regulatory framework. The council includes representatives of eight Russian Ministries, other State Duma Committees, biotechnology-related technology platforms, and the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia.
The Interdepartmental Working Group headed by deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was created at the end of 2012. It already has a work plan in place. At the end of January it will hold its second session where the members of the Group will discuss priority development areas and regulatory needs in bioenergy and alternative biofuel sectors.
