“We go West”| 11.09.2009
On Friday, September 11, the national Association of innovations and information technologies development (NAIRIT) has announced the results of their study of the innovation market in July-August of the current
year.
In this study NAIRIT has interviewed over 750 innovative companies from 57 regions of Russia. According to the Association, most of the respondents (about 58%) does not trust the activities of the state
innovative structures and venture funds with state participation. However, about 66% of the respondents indicated that they would prefer to engage with foreign venture capital structures.
Here NAIRIT notes that two years ago the situation with “venture” the trust in the state was different. In particular, while about 60% of the respondents stated the need to strengthen the role of the state in
the formation of innovative infrastructure. It was assumed that this could give certain guarantees to the innovators in their interaction with foundations (in terms of intellectual property protection,
the correctness of the assessment projects to increase the chances of receiving the money in small companies, etc.). While 78% of respondents expressed a desire to work with local venture capital institutions.
President NAIRIT Olga Uskov noted that such a change of attitude towards the role of government in innovation was caused by the absence of any result in the industry for several years, as well as
problems with the implementation of key infrastructure projects “RUSNANO”, RVC, etc. “Innovators just lost faith in the ability of the state and turned their attention to the West,” says Ms.
Uskova.
