Russia has no innovation strategy, thinks Chubais
MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - General Director at the Russian state corporation Rusnano Anatoly Chubais has said Russia needs to develop its understanding of 'innovative economy'.
"There is no integral strategic view of what the creation of an innovative economy in the country is. You don't see this strategy. Here's an ugly secret, I don't see it either," Chubais said in an interview in the Tuesday edition of the Vedomosti business daily.
"It is usually claimed that the government has no innovation strategy. Such claims shouldn't be made. The government cannot do what the intellectual elite doesn't have," he said.
"We still have a very low professional level of accrued knowledge about innovative economy. A year and a half of discussion has helped, but it's clearly not enough," Chubais said.
"Furthermore, in my understanding, the function and structure of the agencies of authority, or, put more simply, of our government, are not sufficient to the tasks of an innovative economy. Obviously, serious budgetary-strategy adjustments are needed," Chubais said.
"It's impossible simply to allocate thirty billion rubles for innovation and then forget about it. In budgetary strategy, the task of innovation should not be added weight, but rather the very foundation," he said.
"In the different regions [of Russia] the innovative economy will be different. That is good. The regions have an innovation drive already built in. Territories have appeared that just a few years ago were not even on the innovation map," Chubais said.
Nevertheless, he said, "Even with all the significance of the regional component, we have to understand that the most important burden in this construction is federal. That includes resolving dozens of issues, even the enumeration of which will take much time."