Territories of innovative development
The II Innovation and Industrial Forum "Technological Breakthrough. Territories of innovative development".
The organizers are the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Russian Association for Innovative Development with the support of the Interdepartmental Group on Improving Legislation in the Field of Scientific, Technical and Innovative Activities under the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, the United Russia faction of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Government of Moscow.
The plenary session on the topic "Territories of innovative development – zones of advanced economic growth" was opened by Sergey Katyrin, Vice President of the CCI of the Russian Federation.
This is the second such forum, said the Vice-President of the CCI of the Russian Federation. The first one took place last year. Then we considered the problem of innovative development of Russia as such; today we will discuss a specific task: how to successfully create and develop innovative development territories in Russia that can become territories of Russia's technological breakthrough in the future.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Primakov made a welcoming speech to the audience.
The importance and relevance of the topic of our forum is beyond doubt, he said. Despite the crisis, intensive research in this area is being conducted in all federal districts. Without the implementation of their results in practice, it will be difficult to get out of the crisis. We have accumulated significant potential in such industries as nuclear power, the aviation industry, modern laser and biotechnology, genetic engineering. But how to develop this potential in the conditions of the global economic crisis is the question. The dominant role of the state in the creation of national innovation systems is indisputable. Moreover, in the current conditions, strict control is needed both over the allocation of funds and over their use.
The State Duma of the Russian Federation on November 1 adopted the most important law on amendments to the Tax Code, Yevgeny Primakov recalled. VAT is removed from the purchased high-tech equipment that is not manufactured in Russia. The Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been trying for several years to first reset customs duties, and then also remove VAT from imports of such equipment. The next step could be the allocation of targeted loans for the purchase of modern equipment not produced in Russia.
State participation in the transfer of the Russian economy to innovative tracks in the present conditions should be manifested in stimulating the participation of the subjects of the Russian Federation in this process. Without this, there will be no successful special economic zones, business incubators, science cities, technology parks.
Why do we have less than ten percent of innovatively active companies in Russia as a whole, and more than half of them abroad? – the head of the CCI of the Russian Federation asked a question. Yes, because not only technological, but also managerial innovations are being introduced abroad, Yevgeny Primakov noted. They are much cheaper than technological and implementation ones. It is no coincidence that the European Commission stated that management innovations will be one of the main factors in increasing competitiveness in the world market in the coming years. And isn't this where a large layer of work opens up for our chambers and other business associations?
Chairman of the Management Board of NP "Russian Association for Innovative Development" (RAIR), Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Andrey Kokoshin fully supports the idea of providing affordable targeted loans to businesses for the purchase of high-tech equipment not manufactured in the Russian Federation. A very correct decision is to cancel VAT on such equipment. Andrey Kokoshin called on those gathered after returning home to the regions to monitor what is happening in the field of innovation development in order to jointly respond to problems and difficulties; this will help to quickly influence decision-making bodies in order to rectify the situation in case of need.
Andrey Kokoshin stressed that in Russia, in principle, there is no shortage of breakthrough solutions and new ideas today, but there are problems with the implementation of these ideas in practice; we need to bring the idea to industrial implementation, and for this we need engineering centers. There are hundreds and thousands of them in the world, but where are the Russian ones? There are practically none. Such centers need to be created at a faster pace, otherwise we will lag behind; having excellent ideas, experimental developments, we will use what our fathers and grandfathers developed, or buy technologies abroad. The head of the RAIR also raised the issue of granting priority rights to domestic producers when making purchases for municipal needs. In the West, with two equals, the order is always given to its own. For some reason, and we know how this "for some reason" is usually achieved, officials necessarily prefer "foreign" to domestic. This should be resolutely ended; it is impossible to offend the domestic producer, the welfare of the country, all of us, ultimately depends on its prosperity.
State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Stanislav Naumov spoke about the problem of training and retraining of personnel to work in high–tech industries, about ways to solve it.
The head of the Federal Agency for the Management of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Andrey Alpatov made a report to the audience on the state of affairs in the creation of SEZs, whose activities by definition are associated with the use of high technologies. The SEZ is a new instrument of innovative development for our country with a special regime of entrepreneurial activity; the state is creating infrastructure here, a simplified system of administration (the principle of one window) and preferential taxation will be applied in the zones. What do we have today? 13 zones have been created. Of course, this is small compared to, say, China or Singapore (there are hundreds of them there), but this is something. We expect that during the planned period, more than a thousand residents will come to the SEZ, who will invest about half a trillion rubles, create 140 thousand jobs, which will produce 5 trillion rubles worth of products, which means more than 1.5 trillion rubles in taxes. To date, 112 residents have come to the four open technical and implementation SEZs with 57 billion rubles of announced investments. Andrey Alpatov spoke about the situation with tourist and recreational zones (there were already vacationers at the first facilities in Altai), with port ones (there will be purely port sea and airport ones).
The manager of the Almaz Capital Partner Venture Fund, Alexander Galitsky, noted that there are few venture funds in the country. In general, there are not enough entrepreneurs in Russia who are able to work in high-tech business, We simply do not train such entrepreneurs, whereas hundreds of educational institutions are engaged in this abroad. In his opinion, it is necessary to create conditions for smart "heads" capable of doing such business to go to Russia. This is not a losing idea at all, as it may seem to many. A huge number of foreign young entrepreneurs, graduates of prestigious universities are going to make a career in America only because they do not see an alternative; let's meet them halfway – and they will do business with us with pleasure, because for a Finn or a German, it is practically close to home, he does not feel disconnected from his homeland. Alexander Galitsky focused on the problem of the so-called "dugout" business. We are not talking about resellers and raw materials producers from offshore, but about manufacturers, Russians, who, unfortunately, are still profitable and safer to open companies abroad and then enter Russia and produce here. It is necessary to make it so that in Russia it is profitable and safe for Russian businessmen to work in high-tech business, creating Russian firms and investing in them the money earned in Russia.
Russian State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev said that with all the troubles coming to the country along with the economic crisis, it should be noted: In one aspect, Russian firms found themselves in a better situation than their colleagues in the West – ours have less capital coming from the stock market, and the "financial collapse" did not affect them so much. According to estimates, 70 percent of their capital is their own funds. But all the same, the decline in the high-tech sector is expected to be at the level of 10 percent in 2009. This is serious. It will be difficult to work. There remains one way that is objectively beneficial to our economy. This is the way to reduce costs.
The deputy presented his vision of the development of the situation in the high-tech market. We need direct government influence on this market, for example, a federal plan akin to GOELRO in order to make a fundamental step forward here. We need, in particular, self–regulating organizations - this is, among other things, a system of collective responsibility for the results of work. Decisive infrastructural steps are needed (for example, according to Ponomarev, a federal agency for the export of high technologies should be created; it is necessary to accelerate the creation of technology parks; finally, it is necessary to create a higher technological school for training personnel - on the model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this American forge of personnel and ideas). Finally, we need tax support for the development of the high-tech innovation sector. There is a draft law on providing a special tax regime for businesses operating in this sector, in the field of high technology, allowing such companies to switch to a simplified taxation system. The point is to eliminate some obvious injustice: innovative business has minimal costs and maximum surplus value compared to raw materials; the tax loop thrown over it simply suffocates such a business; there is almost no money left for development.
In this sense, the tax system is very merciful to raw materials producers who have high costs and small added value compared to "innovators" (and huge profits due to huge volumes). But the Ministry of Finance believes that everyone needs to be cut under one comb. The bill cannot be considered in the second reading.
In addition, the deputy believes, some legislative steps should be taken to encourage Western firms promoting their high-tech products in the Russian Federation to invest money in Russia. Here Microsoft, the most famous company, sells goods in Russia for a billion dollars, and its investments in Russia are only the creation of eight jobs. Money is leaving Russia forever, no additional jobs are being created. However, Microsoft agrees to work and invest in Russia, but our officials cannot in any way elementary develop a set of rules for this. At the same time, Microsoft invested $200 million in China, and a little less in India. We could have the same indicators, and most importantly, new jobs. Isn't this what every official should take care of if he doesn't eat his bread in vain?
The president of DS-TVC, Egor Konchalovsky, devoted his speech to an important problem in our conditions: increasing the prestige of a scientist, researcher. An oil businessman, a stock speculator – there are a huge number of such heroes on the screen and in books, and who has seen at least one successful hero engaged in the development of high technologies on TV? In Soviet times, scientists and teachers, experimenters, researchers, although they were not the most well-off, but they were never poor, as they are now, and their prestige was simply huge in society. If high technology is the salvation for Russia (and it is), its future, then there must be a corresponding hero, a model, an ideal. The media, directors, and writers need to work in this direction today. And business and the state must urgently take care that the ideal can also earn enough, live like a human being. Look at how such people live in the West. Why are we worse? We're better. We have more talents.
Marina Shichkina, Director of the NP "Russian Association for Innovative Development", spoke about the work of the association, about the goals of the RAIR, about cooperation with government agencies in order to improve the legal and economic regulation of the innovative sector of the economy. She emphasized the importance of consolidating the opinion of the participants of the event, which, embodied in a specific resolution of the conference, can be submitted to the executive power for making appropriate decisions.
Director of the ANO "Republican Research Institute of Intellectual Property" Vladimir Lopatin believes that the whole world does not trade in inventions, but in rights to them, we have the opposite. Vladimir Lopatin explained his thesis using this example: 10,000 patents related to nanotechnology have been obtained in the world, and 2,030 of them were issued in Russia. But to whom? Two thousand patents have been granted to foreign companies, and only thirty to copyright holders. Our non-proprietary ideas are exploited by foreign manufacturers who patent them, create modern technologies based on them, and then sell them to Russia. Russia should adopt the experience of China, which in 20 years has become the third country in the world after the United States and Japan in the field of innovative technologies. And this is largely due to the change in the practice of registering inventions. Intellectual property rights in China are assigned even to the authors of "know-how" within the framework of any technology, and this, according to Lopatin, is one of the components of the "Chinese miracle". To overcome negative trends, it is necessary to carry out an inventory of intellectual property and change legislation in favor of the authors of scientific and technical developments.
The President of the Russian Federation set the task to ensure the organization of scientific work through fundamental scientific programs and research, as well as applied special programs, Lopatin recalled. Last year, 200 billion rubles were allocated from the federal budget for these studies. These funds were distributed by more than 80 state customers; according to some estimates, 30 percent of the money was spent on what is called "kickback". The system is absolutely not transparent, completely different interests play a role in the distribution of money, different from the state. If the trend is not reversed, we can achieve a high technological level of the Russian economy indefinitely, Vladimir Lopatin believes.
In the afternoon, the conference participants were divided by interests: three "round tables" began work – "Formation of the foundations of the national innovation system" and "Technical and innovation special economic zones - innovation clusters of the Russian economy", "Moscow as the "locomotive" of the growth of the innovative economy".
At the final meeting, the relevant final resolution of the conference was adopted.
A. Bondar,
Department of Information and Public Relations of the CCI of the Russian Federation
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru
01.12.2008