Kommersant: "Political strategists looking for a place in the economy"
At a meeting of the government commission on innovation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outlined his plans, including in his capacity as possible Russian president from March 2012, for the structured innovative modernisation of large businesses. Technological modernisation, which under President Dmitry Medvedev is founded on the basis of development institutes, will, it is proposed, in future be realised through an administrative attachment to the processes of state companies and their satellites. These players, it is proposed, will implement the concepts laid out by the Ministry of Economic Development through establishing "regional high technology clusters" and "technology platforms".
At the meeting of the government commission on innovation, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin outlined the main theories in the report put together by the Economic Development Ministry on the development of technology platforms, which Kommersant wrote about on January 30. In particular, he proposed expanding the role of the state sector in the innovative development of the country, as a result of the increase by 13 places in the list of state companies who had been tasked with preparing an innovation programme based on the concept of high technology clusters and technology platforms. Control over the implementation of this programme would be tightened (previously it was assumed that the majority of companies would implement the programmes by the decision of state-controlled councils of directors, exclusively within corporate management), and the salaries of the directors of state companies would be directly dependent on the successful outcome of the innovation programmes. The Economic Development Ministry in turn has been instructed to promptly prepare a list of pilot projects to develop regional clusters and present them to the government for review.
The meeting of the commission on innovation began, in essence, with a self-citation by the prime minister: Vladimir Putin based his speech on a summary of the main points of his own election article "We need a new economy", published by Vedomosti newspaper on January 30, which set out the goals and tasks of the technological modernisation of Russia in the context of the challenges facing the next government. The prime minister had adopted a similar approach with his previous article - Mr Putin's election article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on January 23 was on interethnic relations, and it was followed by a meeting of the heads of the constituent entities of the North Caucasus Federal District in Pyatigorsk.
Despite the fact that the prime minister was officially appearing as an acting government official, and not as a candidate for the highest government post, the election context of the meeting taking place in the Leningrad Region was the source of a mini conflict. Although invited to the meeting of the innovation commission, one of Vladimir Putin's rivals in the presidential race, Mikhail Prokhorov, simply failed to turn up at the meeting of the government commission in Tikhvin. Dmitry Peskov, the prime minister's spokesperson, said that Mr Prokhorov had received an invitation to take part in the meeting, despite the fact that he had been removed from the commission on innovation in September 2011 by orders of Dmitry Medvedev. "A spokesperson for Mr Prokhorov said that it was not right for one presidential candidate to take part in the event of another candidate," Mr Peskov said, adding that he did not agree with this view. This stance was confirmed by Mr Prokhorov's staff. "Candidacy is candidacy, and innovation is innovation," Mr Peskov said. It is worth noting that the official agenda did not directly touch upon Mr Prokhorov's current business group and the innovation part of his presidential campaign programme is based on somewhat different principles than the cluster approach.
One way or another, the acting government of Vladimir Putin is hoping that in 2012 investment in the innovation programme from state companies will rise to 950 billion roubles, and to 1.5 trillion roubles in 2013. In this way the state sector should be able to "play a leading role in the innovation process", however, "not as a substitute for private business but as a catalyst" for innovation, the prime minister said, clarifying that state-owned companies could be most active in those areas "where the process is linked to well-known higher risks" - "due to massive investment in research and development, manufacturing and the purchase of modern goods and services on the domestic market." As a result, Vladimir Putin says that in the next 10 years the proportion of innovation products in Russia's industrial output is expected to rise from today's figure of 4.5-5% to 25-30%, and revenues from research and development initiatives should practically double to 2.5-3% of GDP.
In order to concentrate resources Mr Putin suggested that the big state companies should develop detailed plans as a necessary precondition for participating in the activities of the technology platforms and high technology clusters. It was also suggested that the government in turn will consider measures for supporting these initiatives. However, yesterday the prime minister hardly touched on the topic of the benefits that innovation oriented companies can expect to receive, by the same token it follows from Vladimir Putin's article that private companies should themselves "see to it that 3-5% of their gross income is directed towards research and development." Of course, the prime minister admits, "we have to devise appropriate taxation measures, but the main thing is for the leaders of private enterprises to understand that without it they stand no chance of competing on the global market. Vladimir Putin is clearly hoping that a victory for him in the presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for March 4, will help reinforce this understanding.
Yuri Barksukov, Dmitry Butrin, Oleg Sapozhkov
