Most of the investments in Skolkovo will be made up of private funds
Innovations will pay off
Yulia Voronina, "Russian Business Newspaper" No. 31-2013
The main innovative project of recent years for the state is the creation of the Skolkovo center. According to the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Alexey Ulyukayev during a government meeting, the financing of the state subprogram "Creation and development of the Skolkovo Innovation Center" by 2020 should amount to 502 billion rubles, of which budget funds – 135.6 billion rubles.
In March 2013, the state program "Economic Development and Innovative Economy" was approved. The Skolkovo development subprogram will be included in this state program. "It seems to be substantially correct to supplement the state program with a subprogram that is devoted to the formation of favorable conditions – logistics, infrastructure, legal, tax – to stimulate the entire cycle of research and development, effective commercialization of results," Alexey Ulyukayev said, presenting the Skolkovo development project.
Skolkovo is financed in the format of a public-private partnership, and the share of the state is significantly lower than the share of attracted private investment. According to Viktor Vekselberg, the head of the Skolkovo Foundation, it is planned to attract private investments in the amount of 367 billion rubles by 2020. "And after 2025, state budget funds will not be required at all," he noted. "Skolkovo is an economically recoupable project for the state. The integral contribution to the country's economy from it will exceed budget investments in the project by 2020 and amount to 213 billion rubles. The full effectiveness of investing in the project should be calculated by 2030, when the center will reach full operational capacity. According to preliminary calculations, the contribution to GDP will amount to 1.5 trillion rubles."
"Strategically, the PPP aims to attract investments from private investors, as well as their experience in project management, for the implementation of socially and state-significant functions of a public partner. Therefore, if within the framework of a project the share of financing by a private investor exceeds the share of budget financing, this generally does not contradict the logic of this institution. As a rule, a high share of private capital indicates a greater number of preferences that are presented to project participants and a lower degree of risk, since for a private investor, the issue of return on investment and profitability of the project is still a priority. As a rule, projects that are associated with a large share of social obligations imposed on the future operator of an object created within the framework of a PPP (housing and communal services projects, social services, medicine) are financed at the expense of a public partner. In such projects, it is important for a public partner to find a competent operator and executor of the project to implement the functions of the state or municipality," explained Svetlana Dubinchina, senior associate at Legal Capital Partners.
In her opinion, the high share of private capital in the Skolkovo project can be explained by various factors, including a wide range of tax and customs benefits, as well as services provided by the project management company to its participants: "The presence of these advantages allows you to significantly reduce the costs of private partners and increase their profitability. For a public partner in such projects, the key issue is to build control mechanisms both at the entrance of participants to the project and throughout its implementation period."
The Skolkovo Innovation Center is to become Russia's largest testing ground for a new economic policy. Special conditions for research and development, including the creation of energy and energy-efficient technologies, nuclear, space, biomedical and computer technologies, will be created on a specially designated territory in the near Moscow region.
"The key element of the innovation environment is the project participants – startups, technopark, research and development centers of industrial partners, venture investors and the communication environment," Alexey Ulyukayev said. – The result of all investments should be the creation of at least 50 R&D centers localized in Skolkovo by 2020. It is also planned that by this time there will be more than a thousand startups in Skolkovo. In addition, by 2020, Skoltech – 15 research centers within the framework of the project - should already be fully operational."
As Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev noted earlier at a government meeting, the innovation system created within the framework of the Skolkovo project should be "sharpened" for Russia, taking into account world experience in the field of innovation: "This system cannot be international. Of course, it should be based on the achievements of all mankind, absorb the most advanced experience, and we invite foreigners for this, but we have specific conditions." The Prime minister also added that the task of Skolkovo is not so much to "breed new inventions", this can be done at other sites, as to create the innovation system itself in the country.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.08.2013