Russia To Turn Inside Out for Nanotechnologies

Russia will spend 318 billion rubles on nanotechnologies during the next six years, President Dmitry Medvedev said. The president claimed that business had not learned anything during the crisis and still remained oil-dependent. The president also touched upon the issue of Russian scientists abroad. Medvedev said that one should use their potential and create conditions to attract them to Russia.

Photo: Russia To Turn Inside Out for Nanotechnologies

Russia To Turn Inside Out for Nanotechnologies

“The sales volume of the products of the Russian nano-industry must reach about 900 billion rubles by 2015, mostly due to exports,” Medvedev said at a forum on nanotechnologies.

The head of state complained that the Russian business was still fuel-oriented, despite the international economic crisis.

“We can see no changes in the sphere yet. No one wants to change anything in spite of the fact that the crisis has hit many hard. This is a sad conclusion, but I have to make it: if business does not change, the state does not change either,” Medvedev said.

“The post-crisis economy must be based on the knowledge and innovative technologies, rather than on Russia’s industrial abilities, no matter how limitless they might be,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev also said that Russia must simplify customs rules for the export of high-tech products and build a state order system for such products.

Russian official repeatedly voiced the plans in the field before. Anatoly Chubais, the head of Rosnano State Corporation, said in April 2009 that the company was planning to invest 28 billion rubles in its own projects in 2009 and launch up to 15 productions a month.

Such spending with no specific projects mentioned raises serious questions, many Russian experts said. Moreover, it is not clear where Rosnano was going to take the money from: there is not enough money in the budget for that, and the corporation was not bringing any profit yet.

Medvedev also touched upon the subject of Russian scientists working for companies in foreign countries. A group of Russian scientists working abroad wrote an open letter to the president in which they set out their concerns about the future of the Russian fundamental science.

“Our goal is to get those people working abroad interested, to offer them adequate working conditions and projects here, in Russia,” Medvedev said.

Vzglyad