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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
September 30, 2009. Deputies of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma took part in the XII Innovation Forum with International Participation
September 24-25, Tomsk hosted the XII Innovation Forum with International Participation.
To attend at the Forum, a delegation of the RF Federal Assembly Federation Council came to Tomsk. The Senators visited some of Tomsk universities and companies and went to see the technical innovation zone.
Mikhail Nikolayev, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council and the head of the delegation, said that he had been dreaming about coming to Tomsk, a city of science, research, and higher education. His first impressions managed the expectations, ‘Tomsk people have always been research-minded, smart, and culturally educated. The whole country of Russia has things to learn from Tomsk. And you have been right to have chosen the innovation path for development of the Oblast. As the Russian President said, for Russia there are no two ways about it.’
The visitors participated in the international conference ‘Challenges and perspectives for development of regional innovation systems’. At the opening of the conference, Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, emphasized that as early as in 2002 Tomsk lawmakers passed the first regulatory act to govern development of innovation activity in Tomsk Oblast. Later on, a number of related regional programs and laws were adopted. Indeed, Tomsk Oblast experience has shown that progressive advance of the regional innovation system owes much to the consistent regional policy and regulatory framework in the field of research and innovation.
 ‘Performance of our innovative companies cannot be exaggerated. I will give you only one number – over years 2006-2008 large and medium enterprises of Tomsk Oblast had grown by 105%, and small business companies' growth rate exceeded 140%! Those indices could have been even more significant had the federal and regional system for assistance to promising innovation projects been more substantial and project-specific.’
The Senators also met with Mr. Maltsev and Oblast deputies. Their discussions concerned budget allocations to the regions and the state tax policy.
Boris Maltsev said, ‘Tomsk Oblast is not poor, however, always being a donor, today we have turned into an acceptor. Such is the equalizing policy for the regions. We earn over 100bn rubles but we are allowed to keep only 30bn. In fact, the Budget Code establishes a 50 to 50 ratio but in practice we see another picture. In 1990s, during the period of major collapse, we, in Tomsk Oblast, developed a gas industry, implemented advanced technologies at gas fields, installed required equipment and created thousands of jobs. But by the current rules, gas revenues to the Oblast budget are zero’.
 The meeting participants touched upon the innovation development. According to Hussein Chechenov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Education and Science, the law on innovation activity is highly urgent today, as we lack it on the federal level despite its adoption in 49 regions.
The participants highly appreciated the organization level of the XII Innovation Forum with International Participation in Tomsk. As a unique feature of the Tomsk Forum they marked participation of a great number of researchers and regional businessmen in it.
As part of the XII Innovation Forum, the Youth Career Forum ‘Professionalism –2020: Development Management’ held its session with participation of the Oblast deputy Nellya Gudantseva. This year the Youth Career Forum had a new format: it introduced the activity of eight analytical youth teams and was at the utmost involved in the XII Innovation Forum program. That was foremost done to implement an ambitious project which is clearly well within the powers of the region – to hold 2010 Innovation Convent in Tomsk.
The Innovation Convent is a yearly all-Russia event intended to give an impetus to the young Russians’ innovation activity. Its participants are young Russian inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, innovation managers, as well as representatives of Russian and foreign companies using innovation products and designs.
‘Analytical teams coped with all tasks’, said Nellya Gudantseva. ‘Since now the Forum participants have the challenge ahead to involve other young people into analytical activity, and also develop a program for the Innovational Convent in Tomsk. And after all, Tomsk Oblast pays much attention to technology innovations and youth business. Young people should be aware of available resources, design their development strategy with experts’ assistance including development of their teams.
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