The expansion of Russia’s biggest innovations roadshow shows no signs of abating, with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich saying the Startup Tour is to take in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan next year.
The stops on this year's Startup Tour.
The three-month event, currently in its fifth year, has gone international this time around, with a visit to Almaty, Kazakhstan in March and a foray into Belarus later this month.
Dvorkovich, a member of the Skolkovo board of trustees, called that move an “important step” in the development of innovative technology in the Eurasian Economic Union.
“I’m confident that next year Armenia and Kyrgyzstan will host the Startup Tour 2016,” he added.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
Venturing into other CIS countries is a “logical extension of our project,” Dvorkovich said. “In finding solutions to problems of Eurasian economic integration and the formation of a single economic zone, we should be under no illusions that the creation of a single innovation space is destined to be an important part of the integration process,” he added.
The main goal of the Startup Tour goal is to find the most promising startups and give them the instruments they need to commercialize their innovations, creating pockets of entrepreneurship and venture capitalism all over the country - and now abroad.
Some of the top startups encountered along the way are invited to take part in the pitch sessions at the Startup Village in Moscow at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, where they can win investment and possible residency.
Dvorkovich, in the meantime, named a broader goal.
“Progress in the 21st century is possible only on the foundations of cutting-edge technology, and this is an area where we have a lot to offer each other,” he said, speaking of the neighboring countries.
In particular, the countries can “make the common community of scientists, developers, entrepreneurs and investors more close-knit, so together they can develop innovative technologies and bring them to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union and the wider world,” Dvorkovich said.
His quotes, originally issued in March, were provided to sk.ru by his press service.
The deputy prime minister before the tour rolled into Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast, the eighth stop on the 12-stage roadshow.
It has already visited Rostov-on-Don, Tomsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Almaty and St. Petersburg, and culminates in the Startup Village, the biggest event of its kind in Eastern Europe, on June 2-3.
Last month, Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg received a high-level Cuban delegation led by Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart. One of the talking points was the possibility of taking the Startup Tour to Cuba and Ecuador next year.