Translated material
Preferential geography
The State Duma expanded the boundaries of Skolkovo to the entire country
On Friday, State Duma deputies passed the draft law “On the Skolkovo Innovation Center” in the second reading by an overwhelming majority of votes. Amendments made to the presidential version of the bill by the government and deputies significantly expanded the opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the unprecedented benefits promised to residents of the Russian Silicon Valley.A bill on the conditions for the creation and operation of the Russian innovation center Skolkovo was introduced by President Dmitry Medvedev to the State Duma on May 31, 2010. On July 2, it was adopted in the first reading . During the summer holidays, 67 amendments were proposed to the draft law, including government ones. Most of the amendments (41) are one way or another taken into account in the bill. But some initiatives, introduced mainly by members of the Federation Council, were rejected. For example, the proposal of the deputy chairman of the Federation Council budget committee, Vyacheslav Novikov, to deprive participants of the Skolkovo project of customs benefits did not pass (see Vremya Novostey, June 23) .
One of the main principles of the functioning of the Russian Silicon Valley should have been the requirement for the mandatory location of the governing bodies of project participants on the territory allocated for the innovation center west of the capital along the Minsk Highway. Therefore, although the law should come into force immediately after its publication, the actual launch of the project was postponed until the construction of the first office and research premises on its territory. Even the curator of the project, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov, assumed that this would take four to five years.
At the initiative of the head of the Duma Committee on Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship, Evgeny Fedorov, an amendment was made to the bill, which gives Skolkovo the opportunity to begin operating almost immediately after the law comes into force (taking into account that the third reading is scheduled for the end of September). For this purpose, a moratorium was introduced on the requirement to locate the head structures of project participants on the territory of the innovation city until January 1, 2014. “That is, all Russian companies that are engaged in the research business have the right to receive through Skolkovo the necessary benefits on customs, on profits, on VAT, on property,” explained Mr. Fedorov. “Thus, this makes the Skolkovo project national.”
In mid-August, the President of the Skolkovo Foundation, Viktor Vekselberg, and the Director of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, already signed an agreement according to which, until the development of the territory of the innovation city, the Kurchatov Center will provide its space for its future residents. In turn, Mr. Kovalchuk did not hide the fact that his institute intends to transfer a wide range of its research in the field of superconductivity, innovative coatings, high-tech medicine, and hydrogen energy under the auspices of the Skolkovo Foundation.
Giving the Skolkovo project extraterritoriality is positively assessed by the President of the National Association for Innovation and Information Technology Development Olga Uskova. “We have long sought the introduction of a special tax and customs regime for the domestic innovation sector in order to compete on equal terms with Western high-tech companies, where similar conditions have been in place for a long time. We will insist that the extraterritorial nature of the innovation city be extended to all promising Russian innovative companies, and not just to the official residents of the Skolkovo project,” said Ms. Uskova.
Skolkovo is expanding not only territorially, but also organizationally and legally. Evgeny Fedorov, together with three other members of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, proposed to include not only legal entities, but also individual entrepreneurs among the project participants. All companies that work under contracts with project participants will receive the same status.
Nobel laureate, co-chairman of the Skolkovo scientific council, communist deputy Zhores Alferov managed to open the project not only for business entities, as stated in the original version of the law, but also for other legal entities, including those engaged exclusively in research activities. On his initiative, the draft law introduced a requirement for the management company to annually post a report on its activities on the Internet. But he failed to convince the parliamentary majority of the need to grant the Skolkovo scientific council the right to conduct an examination and give opinions on the “tasks and areas of research activity” of potential project participants.
Otherwise, the main parameters of the Skolkovo project remained without fundamental changes. Thus, the powers of state and municipal structures, primarily in relations with business, on the territory of the innovation city are transferred to a management company specially established for this purpose by the fund. Project participants will be fully reimbursed for customs duties. A zero income tax rate is introduced for them, and they are completely exempt from paying property tax. For ten years from the date of registration, project participants will be able to pay internal VAT if they wish (in some cases it may turn out that paying it is more profitable than using an exemption from it). Insurance contributions to the Pension Fund will be charged at a rate of 14% (instead of 26%, which everyone else will be required to pay starting next year). Contributions to social and compulsory health insurance funds will not be deducted.