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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
February 11, 2010. President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev
held in Tomsk a meeting of the Commission for Modernization
and Technological Development of the Russian Economy
During his visit, Mr. Medvedev laid flowers on the Memorial of Military and Labor Glory, held a meeting with the students of Tomsk universities and answered their questions, held a working meeting with Viktor Kress, the Governor of Tomsk Oblast and visited Tomsk Electromechanical Plant.
The visit made to Tomsk Oblast by the head of state, chief executives of the Government and the President’s Administration, and the managers of the largest Russian industrial and financial corporations came to be a landmark event for the region, and the questions raised in Tomsk were of strategic importance for Russia. The meetings reaffirmed the status of Tomsk as the Russian center of education, research and innovations.
At the working meeting, Viktor Kress delivered to the President a number of addresses. Dmitry Medvedev backed a proposal to create a state-coordinated working group to elaborate the issues related to conferring the status of a special territory of innovation to Tomsk. It will not be a Russian answer to the Silikon Valley. The Federal R&D Center will more likely be built from scratch somewhere near Moscow. However, as Dmitry Medvedev said at the meeting with the students, “you already are a centre of innovation”. Now there are certain legal, financial, and infrastructural issues that should be resolved to formalize this specific status de jure. Among other measures Tomsk suggested changing the fiscal, budget and customs legislation in favor of the innovative regions and increasing federal allocations for the federal target programs, particularly for the program Housing for Young Families.
In his speech at the session of the Commission for Modernization and Technological Development of the Russian Economy the President said that large private companies should contribute to the formation of a modern Russian economy. The head of state reminded that such companies have enjoyed extensive state support at different stages of their development when, for example, in the 1990s the state allocated resources, or recently, under the blow of crisis when the state stepped out as a reliable partner and did not cast private business adrift. Today, as we are talking about an innovation-based renovation of the economy, we need to understand one another and shape a long-term plan of specific actions and foundations of our policy, the President said.
Mr. Medvedev expects that within the next two months private companies will be able to develop ideas for breakthrough projects in their particular technologies. And all those projects should involve creation of totally different products.
The President also touched upon the development of venture capital and public co-financing mechanisms and emphasized urgency of targeted measures to support certain projects.
During the session the head of state said that he had signed the Instruction to create a Russian R&D Center. He added that the Center will become the largest testing ground for the new economic policy.
As Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, said, all attendees at the session of the Commission pointed out that the public officials, business representatives, deputies – everyone drew a lot out of the meetings in Tomsk and cooperation during the visit.
Is the President able to involve large business in consistent financing of research activities and subsequent implementation of those developments at the industrial facilities?
‘This question compounded a major intrigue of the Tomsk session of the presidential Commission for Modernization and Technological Development of the Russian Economy’, said the Speaker.
‘I absolutely agree with Mr. Medvedev that the raw material economy has no future. Without the development of technologies and at some points breakthroughs, without modernization it is impossible to build a modern model of the Russian economy. Creation of such a commission and the Commission itself are very important for the state, Tomsk Oblast and people. It is also crucial that the President follows a consistent path towards modernization of the society.
For the first time Tomsk Oblast has seen so many representatives of large-scale Russian business. I was impressed most of all by the report of Anatoly Chubais, head of the public corporation Rosnanotech. Mr. Chubais suggested that small and medium business companies join the research efforts with particular focus on small and medium companies on the basis of universities. Aleksey Kudrin, Minister of Finance, delivered a very interesting speech on state protectionism for the business involved in research activity. Mr. Kudrin believes that rapid modernization requires more investments into fixed assets, 8 to 14 trillion rubles annually, and the money should not come from the budget or tax preferences. Some attractive thoughts were expressed by businessmen Vagit Alekperov, Mikhail Prokhorov, Vladimir Evtushenko.’
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