The Ministry of Industry and Trade is ready to transfer the assessment of company loyalty to private hands

The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to transfer to private companies an actual assessment of the compliance of company policies with government priorities. As the department assumes, expert organizations selected through a competition will review business plans for the purchase of high-tech equipment for compliance with the relevant state policy and make recommendations on their state support. However, it is possible that we are talking about the transfer of examination functions to former research institutes - in this case we are talking about the restoration of the Soviet system of industrial examinations in a new form.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade developed and sent for approval to departments a draft government resolution “On the procedure for forming a system for selection and state support for the import of key complex technologies.” The document not only lists methods of state support for importers, but also sets out the procedure for selecting recipients of benefits.

The project involves the formation of a system of expert assessment of necessary technologies, assessment of their effectiveness and maintaining a register of technologies supported by the government. The experts’ task will be to select technologies, the implementation of which will provide Russian enterprises with competitive advantages. The compliance of technologies with priority areas of scientific and technological development, as well as the list of critical technologies approved by the government, will also be assessed. In accordance with the project, the selection of expert organizations will be carried out on a competitive basis. Among the proposed government support measures, public-private partnership mechanisms, partial subsidies for imports, leasing from the budget, tax and other benefits within special economic zones, and reduction or zeroing of import customs duty rates are mentioned.

As explained in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the order to develop a unified system of expert assessment and support for high-tech imports is contained in the main directions of government activity until 2012, approved in December 2008. In addition to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the co-executors are the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance. Until now, all these departments have independently assessed promising projects involving the import of high technologies, providing them with support within their competence. The government's instructions envisaged the creation of a more effective unified system for selecting and supporting high-tech imports.

As the project developer, head of the department of basic industries of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Igor Gonnov, explained to Kommersant, we are not talking about transferring to private companies the right to determine recipients of benefits - an interdepartmental advisory council will analyze the recommendations of experts and make decisions. However, the functions of the advisory council are not written down in detail in the draft, nor are the criteria for selecting expert organizations. Stressing that it is too early to talk about the conditions of the competition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade noted that the winners should be organizations “with experience of expert work in the industry.” As an example, the department cited the Federal State Institution Research Institute RINCCE, a state institute that has been involved in the examination of dual-use technologies for many years. If the number of expert organizations includes mainly the heirs of industry research institutes, then we can talk about a return to the Soviet system, in which expert assessments and recommendations for departments were prepared by specialized state institutes.

However, the Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasizes that while the document is only the position of one of the developers, other departments should also send their comments. Yesterday, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance were not ready to comment on the project of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Rusnano also did not have time to familiarize itself with the document, but noted that the current system of state support for high-tech imports can be made more effective.

Alexander Gudkov

All power to the experts