Clusters are Moving Closer in Moscow
On July 25, a four-day strategic session 'Strategic Priorities and New Opportunities for the Development of Innovative Clusters' was opened in Moscow. The event was organised by the Ministry of Economic Development, RVC JSC jointly with the Higher School of Economics. Representatives of government offices, leading universities, scientific organisations and enterprises involved in the activities of the clusters discussed new challenges and directions of development in the format of strategic sessions. A cross-cutting theme, the digitalisation, was examined in light of the federal priorities, best regional practices and common problems.
The session was opened by Leonid Gokhberg, HSE First Vice Rector and ISSEK Director, on the basis of which the Russian Cluster Observatory is operating, which is recognised as a key centre of competence in the field of cluster policy. The initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development to stimulate 27 innovative territorial clusters, launched in 2012 and reformatted in 2016 into the support program for 12 leading clusters of world-class investment attractiveness, was extremely successful, said the First Vice Rector. Other ministries, such as Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, later began to develop their measures to support clusters. According to Leonid Gokhberg, the activity of clusters, which has a truly ‘catalytic’ effect on the development of innovative systems of their home territories, requires special support measures, as it is at the crossroad of the of sectoral and regional policy.
There are not so many sources of innovative development in Russia, in particular, they are universities and large corporations. ‘Clusters are the third and most interesting source of innovation’, said Mikhail Antonov, Deputy General Director – Director for Innovative Infrastructure Development, Russian Venture Company (RVC JSC). As part of the implementation of the cluster policy, Russian Venture Company acts as the main development institution, which supports almost all cluster projects, and as a project office of STI — as a priority — projects that contribute to the transition to the digital economy. Sergey Abdykerov, RVC JSC Director of the STI project office, commented on this set of projects in detail.
As the moderator of the first plenary session — Director for Innovative Ecosystem Development of RVC JSC Alexey Gusev noted, the digital transformation of the economy is a good combination of state priorities and natural processes.
Artem Shadrin, Director of the Strategic Development and Innovation Department of the RF Ministry of Economic Development, listed the priority areas of federal support provided by the Ministry of Economic Development at the new stage. According to him, these are primarily the tools of the programme of leading clusters, the programme ‘Digital economy’, the National technology initiative, as well as fast-growing leading companies, or ‘tech companies’ (‘gazelles’ or successful startups). Artem Shadrin called on representatives of the clusters to actively participate in the strategic session, noting that its format allows to work out the issues of the federal agenda in project groups and to recruit teams for further implementation of joint projects. On the final day, the clusters had to protect their projects in front of a Commission of representatives of relevant ministries, agencies and development institutions. Successful projects can be scaled to other regions, Artem Shadrin promised.
Alexander Zorin, Director of the regional policy office, formed in May 2018, told about the principles of activity of the ANO Digital Economy.
Vladimir Korovkin, Professor of the business practice at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Head of the Digital Technologies, believes that the success of the digital agenda set at the government level will depend primarily on how much it will be picked up in the regions.
UrFU First Vice-Rector Sergey Kortov presented a good example of implementation of the digital agenda in the region. He told about the beginning of the transformation of the Sverdlovsk region, with the full support of the Governor, into a ‘smart region’. It is noteworthy that the developers of this concept have set a course to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals among other goals.
It is expected to apply the world experience, in particular, the experience of Beijing, in developing the concept of the innovation and production cluster in Moscow, which will unite IT companies, business incubators, technology parks, academic institutions of the city in the future. This is likely to be implemented ‘in the format of social network, marketplace, and exchange of contracts’, said the head of the Russian Cluster Observatory and of the Cluster Policy Unit of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) Evgeniy Kutsenko in an interview with RIA Novosti during the strategic session.
Within three days of its work, an inter-cluster business contacts exchange was also organised for those interested in expanding cooperation and planning partnership meetings. The materials and results of the strategic session will be available on the website of the Russian Cluster Observatory.
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