Translated material
Macrorubles for the nanoworld
The Ministry of Education and Science's report on innovative technologies received criticism and additional funding
Nanotechnology seems to be quietly becoming another Russian priority project. At a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers held yesterday, Mikhail Fradkov called nanodevelopment a platform on which it is necessary to build work on diversifying the economy. Bypassing bureaucratic rules, the prime minister allowed, for now, without amendments, to begin additional funding for the federal target program for nanotechnology in the amount of 60 billion rubles. until the end of 2006.Innovation programs, as you know, have been the subject of heated debate among government members for more than six months. Applied research is the responsibility of both the Ministry of Education and Science, which is responsible for the development of high-tech technologies, and the Ministry of Economic Development, which promises to take the country off the raw materials needle and move to a knowledge economy. Yesterday's discussion of the issue at the government meeting also involved heated discussions.
Report by Andrey Fursenko on the 9 billion rubles received into the country's budget. through the implementation of new and improved high-tech products seemed too abstract to his cabinet colleagues, and the proposals of the Ministry of Education to improve the legislative framework were insufficient. “The proposals are absolutely general and do not advance us anywhere,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev assessed Mr. Fursenko’s proposals at the legislative level to achieve real protection of intellectual property rights and simplify the conditions for public-private partnerships to attract investment. The head of the Ministry of Economic Development, German Gref, did not miss the opportunity to remind his colleague that a program for the development of nanotechnology has not yet been agreed upon, although the originally set deadline of January 1, 2007 is approaching. Mr. Gref said that “we are already late with nanotechnology, and now it is the last car of a fast-moving train.” At the same time, he suggested that the Ministry of Education and Science set more ambitious goals and improve the mechanisms for their implementation.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin also could not resist criticism. He drew special attention to the fact that the government has so far been ineffective in stimulating private businesses to invest in innovative projects. If budget expenditures in this area approximately correspond to the level of developed countries - about 1% of GDP, he explained, then in terms of the contribution of private business we lag very seriously behind. Mr. Kudrin cited for comparison figures on private investment in science in foreign countries, where sometimes they reach 2% of GDP. In Russia, this figure is tenths of a percent. At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Finance said that amendments to the Tax Code have already been developed to reduce the tax component in the price of a “scientific product.” According to him, this will stimulate the innovative activities of enterprises. The income tax on funds allocated to support scientific research will also be excluded from the tax base.
Mikhail Fradkov, unlike the ministers of the economic bloc, turned out to be more restrained in his criticism and even tried to justify Andrei Fursenko’s “understatements and commonplaces in the report.” Addressing the Minister of Education and Science, the Prime Minister noted that the lack of specifics “is not so much your fault as our common misfortune.” He also called on members of the Cabinet of Ministers to jointly develop specific measures, including on the issue of nanotechnology, as was done at the previous meeting, which discussed energy saving issues. The topic of nanotechnology, in his opinion, cannot be turned into “the interests of a separate campaign”; “this is a national task.”