The current political and economic tensions between Russia and the West promote import-subsitution at home, Skolkovo Foundation president Victor Vekselberg has told the BBC Russian Service in an interview.
Skolkovo Foundation president Victor Vekselberg. Photo: sk.ru
Skolkovo was created in 2010 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev as a mechanism to kick-start an innovations-based economy and decrease budgetary reliance on the energy sector. Now, with Western sanctions in place, domestic research and development is becoming increasingly important, Vekselberg said.
“The theme of import-substitution is becoming more relevant, the state is trying to find resources within the country, as well as high-tech solutions, and this has played its part in ramping up demand for the innovations that are appearing today within the Skolkovo project. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.”
Vekselberg added that “I think the sanctions problem lies more in people’s minds than really exists in our concrete initiatives and general work.”
“Our foundation’s mission is to create a supportive ecosystem for initiatives linked to innovation projects, to the appearance of startups, to support these startups and the commercialization of their innovations.”
He continued: “There is no direct impact from the sanctions, which generally target the transfer of specific technology, on specific equipment, within specific sectors of the economy. There is no direct connection the general activity of the Skolkovo Foundation,” he said.
“Of course, the overall tense situation is reflected in the degree – that’s what I’d call it – in the degree of activity of our international partners, who, as I’d like to put it, with a certain amount of caution and anticipation are waiting to see how the situation will develop further.”
“It has been felt slightly at Skoltech, our university, where a few of our planned [faculty] transfers from Western universities, unfortunately, were not able to happen. But these restrictions, to a significant degree, pushed forward many of our own research projects that had been on the back burner. Demand for them has grown.”
Vekselberg was speaking on the sidelines of the European Business Leaders Convention in Helsinki.