Digital Sovereignty and Urban Development: Skolkovo on the First Day of the EEF-2021

The Eastern Economic Forum kicked off in Vladivostok’s Far Eastern Federal University campus. Skolkovo Foundation representatives took part in discussions about Russia’s digital sovereignty and the opportunities for technological development in cities.

During the discussion, “Digital Sovereignty,” the key topic was the issue of setting goals for creating digital sovereignty. Igor Drozdov, the chairman of the board of the Skolkovo Foundation, shared his vision and the prospects for a solution:

“With the issue of digital sovereignty, it is important to define the macro goals. We must understand what is more important for us. On the one hand, we want to develop artificial intelligence and be leaders in this field. But that requires a lot of data, but technological leadership without flexible regulation in the field of data is not possible. Here I put my hope in a ‘sandbox’ regimen – experimental legal regimes – that is a compromise when we can test and check how it works. Secondly, we need to observe how society perceives this.”

Chairman of the board of the Skolkovo Foundation Igor Drozdov.

The issue of digital sovereignty is integral to the range of issues of international collaboration and competition. During the same discussion, the chairman of the board of directors of Promobot, Alexey Yuzhakov, talked about the experience and importance of international cooperation. Earlier at the EEF, Promobot (Skolkovo resident) presented a number of its developments.

“Promobot – it is not so much a company that has sold 700 robots in 43 countries, but one that has gained feedback from 700 clients in 43 countries. That is in many ways unique data,” said Yuzhakov.

During another discussion, “Law on technology: can regional centers become drivers in the technological development of urban centers?”, the senior vice present of innovations at the Skolkovo Foundation Kirill Kaem talked about the Foundation’s experience and the successes of regional operators:

“The first harbringer was a Russian island where a separate technopark was created by the FEFU. There we modeled the processes that would later be implemented into our current strategy for developing regional operators. We have opened 18 operators in different regions, and they are contributing to the growth in residents: in 2020 [we gained] 570 residents with a turnover of 12-13 billion rubles. During the first half of 2021, the number of residents at regional operators increased to 680 and their revenue reached 10 billion, so it’s clear that the results will be greater than last year.”

Senior vice president of innovations at the Skolkovo Foundation Kirill Kaem.

In talking about the development of a technological urban environment, Kaem used the Skolkovo experience and prospects as an example:

“Skolkovo is a model of a small city. Here we can do pilot mini-projects for different technological solutions, and then as a next step scale them up to a medium to a large city.”

EEF-2021 takes place from 2-4 September in a mixed format. The main topic of this year’s forum is the new opportunities for the Far East in a changing world.