Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says Skolkovo is starting to produce tangible results, despite being less than five years old.
From left: Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg, his advisor Pekka Viljakainen, and Prime Minister Medvedev. Photo: sk.ru
Medvedev signed the decree on creating the Skolkovo Innovation Center while he was president back in 2010, in an effort to kick-start the modernization of the economy and reduce its dependence on energy exports.
“The (Skolkovo) foundation has been living and developing for almost five years,” Medvedev said at a meeting of Skolkovo’s board of trustees during Startup Village this week.
“The state has supported and continues to provide substantial support, and it is partly because of this support that the project has succeeded. But in parallel, the foundation is bringing in extra-budget sources of investment, and the project is starting to produce results, including in the financial sense,” he said.
Medvedev praised the project for holding strong in the complicated political climate.
“Despite the fairly difficult foreign backdrop, our strategic goals, our partner relations have remained unchanged.”
“It’s clear that we need a modern system of supplying innovations that is integrated with the globalized world, that attracts the best minds and makes the most of partner connections,” he added.
The board of trustees meeting was held at the Skolkovo Hypercube after Medvedev had taken a whirlwind tour of Startup Village, Eastern Europe’s biggest innovations conference, and awarded a ceremonial diploma to the first graduates of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.
Having studied Russia’s first 3D bioprinter at the Startup Bazaar and an exoskeleton named ExoAtlet, both products of Skolkovo’s biomed cluster residents, Medvedev gave the biomed team its dues.
The board of trustees meeting at the Hypercube. Photo: sk.ru
“This is a big, independent field that, I hope, will allow Skolkovo to use its potential to develop and promote its agricultural technology.” Agricultural technology is a strategic area of expansion within the Skolkovo ecosystem, and is currently under the biomed cluster’s mandate.
Medvedev then turned to the scale and scope of the Skolkovo project, saying “this is not only a Moscow project.”
“A Far Eastern branch of Skolkovo recently opened. This is a strategically important region. I’m sure that the cooperation with the nations of southeast Asia will be successful,” he added.
Even though the government has made firm financial commitments to Skolkovo in spite of the difficult economic climate, efforts must be made to attract more private capital into the project, Medvedev said.
“In this context, it is especially important to continue working with potential investors, with private investors who are ready to support the project,” he added. ”It’s also necessary to organize work effectively with partners and contractors – I’m referring to the unfinished construction of infrastructure.”
“This process needs to be carefully controlled so that all the building work that was assigned to be done this year, is completed this year. Naturally, steps to support investment will be taken,” he added.
Regarding transport links, Medvedev asked Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg to look into creating an express rail service to central Moscow.
“That will qualitatively improve the situation as regards access for everyone who works and studies here,” he said.
Vekselberg himself had raised the idea of a train service from Belorussky Station in downtown Moscow, saying Skolkovo’s transport infrastructure was a “principal issue.” Reaching the Skolkovo Innovation Center, 1 km to the west of Moscow’s orbital highway, currently takes 40 minutes in reasonable traffic. A direct train route would cut that journey time in half.
The Skolkovo president summed up the activities of the foundation with the phrase, “we help innovators become entrepreneurs.”
“The Innovation Center has started developing the ecosystem very well. The results of our work in 2014 show that we have passed into the third stage of development – uncovering the potential and commercialization of the ecosystem,” Vekselberg said.
In closing remarks, Medvedev said he hoped Skolkovo will not simply develop further, but “play an even more serious role in solving the task of technological advancement,” including import-substitution.
“For this we need to maximally concentrate our resources, to follow the path of the world’s leading practices, the best practices in the field of commercializing research.”