Munich is the biggest city in the German state of Bavaria, a district that has one of the biggest economies in Europe and a higher GDP than many developed countries. Every year more than six million people visit the city for the annual OktoberFest, a beer festival that (unsurprisingly) takes place in the first week of October and lasts for more than two weeks.
Rather less popular and well-known, although infinitely more sober, is the Christmas Market that the city hosts throughout December. Dominated by an enormous Christmas tree, it is Germany's 'largest manger market' and the subject of many a European winter idyll... and postcard.
Around the corner from the Yule celebrations on Marienplatz are the offices of Siemens where this week its President and CEO Peter Löscher met with Intel's ex-CEO Craig Barrett and one of Russia's most powerful business leaders Victor Vekselberg.
They had assembled, not to buy a manger from the Christmas Market, but to map out the future for Russia's emerging tech cluster and community. All three are part of the International Board for Skolkovo, a Russian foundation that was set up in 2010 to create a tech cluster in Moscow.
As well as the building of a campus and a huge business park, by the end of 2012 the Skolkovo project will house 800 start-ups in clusters of biomedicine, energy, IT, nuclear, space technologies and communications. It has also attracted significant investment from established global companies such as Siemens, IBM, Cisco and Russian oil giant Rosneft.
These global blue-chips are not alone. Last week, the President of Samsung Jung Sung Ho announced that he had signed an agreement with Skolkovo to open a R&D centre in Moscow. Siemens' President and CEO Löscher also underlined the importance of the project after the meeting.
“Skolkovo is not only important for Russia, it is even more important for the global scientific co-operation and that community. We were one of the first companies to invest in Russia and we are committed to continuing that support.
“We expect 10,000 new jobs to have been created by the end of 2013 as we build use innovative networks to create an impressive infrastructure,” he said.
Russia has also been trying to get to grips with reforming intellectual property law to turn back the piracy that has been rampant in the country since the Soviet Union broke up. Previously, would-be inventors would work for the state and the state would own the consequent IP and patents. That is expected to change if current legislation empowering inventors becomes law in 2013.
According to Skolkovo, which is pushing for these changes in IP law, more than 20 of its companies have already created 131 new IP products in the past 12 months, a rate of progress that is iterated by Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel for seven years and now the Chair of the Foundation.
“It took 40 years to create Silicon Valley and Skolkovo has only existed for two years, but we are seeing excellent progress. Nowadays, in Silicon Valley there is no government centre of control, things just get done because of its entrepreneur experience.
“Russia has always had a very strong academic background, but less so in commercialisation. In the long-term we expect the Russia government to become less and less involved as Russian entrepreneurs emerge,” he said.
Moscow and Skolkovo have seen a list of world leaders, entrepreneurs and institutions visiting the Foundation over the past 12 months. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, the Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson and US Vice-President Joe Biden and have all dropped in and there are also on-going Russian-US partnerships between the Foundation and NASA, Boston's MIT and Harvard University.
“We are committed to furthering the growth of Russia through investing in start-ups and attracting established technology companies to Moscow. Co-operation with foreign institutions, universities and centre of excellences are vital in the success of the Skolkovo project,” said Viktor Vekselberg, the Head of Skolkovo, as the press conference came to a close.
Within seconds the members of Council were whisked away to their awaiting limousines and away to their respective countries. Meanwhile, over on Marienplatz the Christmas Market continued and the city of Munich enjoyed its prosperity and position in the world, oblivious to the strategies of powerful men and the future of the world.
Telegraph