Russia has 24 SEZs focusing on four major areas – four research zones, four industrial zones, 13 tourist and recreation zones, and three port zones.
The research zones operate in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Tomsk, as well as the Moscow Region (town of Dubna). The zones serve as an instrument for creating innovation infrastructure to encourage regional research and development potential.
The government supports these zones by providing tax breaks and customs privileges, as well as lower land rental tariffs. Their infrastructure is funded from the budgets at all levels. Investors are provided with land and the required engineering infrastructure.
As of March 9, 2011, 200 resident companies were registered in the research zones. As many as 52 of them are already turning out research and development products to a total sum exceeding 4.4 billion roubles.
These resident companies' investments exceed 4.5 billion roubles. About 2,000 new jobs have been created, and over 35 patents and 36 state registration certificates have been issued.
The research zones incorporate enterprises: 1. Developing and pilot-producing electronic component bases, micro-system techniques and information and telecommunications systems; 2. Developing and producing 65-45nm nanochips; 3. Creating scientific and technological bases for optical waveguide and optoelectronics; 4. Developing and pilot-production of programme and technical complexes for the energy sector and ultra-filtration technologies.
Technology parks play a vital role in establishing the required institutional environment for the new Russian economy. They must promote small- and medium-sized business development through the formation of support infrastructure for new enterprises as business incubators. They must also boost competitiveness and development in high-tech industries, including information and communications technologies. The federal budget will allocate 1.5 billion roubles in 2011 and regional budgets will allocate 2.9 billion roubles to open technology parks.
Based on a governmental resolution dating Dec. 27, 2010, the following regions will receive federal budget allocations to establish and develop high-tech parks – Tatarstan (Naberezhnye Chelny) for the IT sector, Novosibirsk for the IT, bioengineering, power engineering, and instrument-engineering sectors, Kemerovo for the coal, metallurgical engineering, and chemical sectors, Nizhny Novgorod for the IT, instrument-engineering, machine-building, and new materials sectors, St. Petersburg for the IT sector, Kaluga for the energy-saving and medical technologies sectors, Penza for the medical and IT sectors, and Samara for the IT and machine-building sectors.
By the end of 2010, the number of resident companies at technology parks grew by 46% to 341, increasing the number of jobs by 37% to 10,001. The production volume also tripled to total around 21 billion roubles.
A science town is a municipal complex with the status of an urban district. It has a high scientific and technical potential and a town-forming scientific and production complex.
Today, 14 municipal entities in six regions have received this status – Obninsk in Kaluga, Korolyov, Dubna, Reutov, Fryazino, Pushchino, Troitsk, Zhukovsky, Protvino, and Chernogolovka in Moscow, Koltsovo in Novosibirsk, Michurinsk in Tambov, Biisk in the Altai Territory, and Peterhof in St. Petersburg.
The status serves as the basis for receiving federal budget funds through inter-budget transfers provided for social, engineering and innovation infrastructure development and support. The transfer sum given to each science town depends on the size of the resident population.