Rustam Minnikhanov chosen Chairman of Council of the Association of innovative regions of Russia

A session of the General assembly of members and the Council of the Association of innovative regions of Russia was held in Moscow today. During the session President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov was chosen chairman of the AIRR Council.

Chairman of the AIRR Supervision council – chairman of RF State Duma Sergei Naryshkin marked that the displayed interest towards the activity of the association is quite understandable.

“The thing is that building of knowledge-based economy, entering into the innovative way of development are main factors in generation and implementation of the development strategy of the Russian regions in general,” Sergei Naryshkin stated.

He marked that though the clear task to enter the innovative way of development was set up not long ago, much has been done in Russia in this sphere.

“Firstly, considerable increase of budget funding provided for these purposes is obvious. State corporations now allocate more funds for their innovative projects. Secondly, new objects appear in the innovative infrastructure of Russia, such as technology transfer centers, technoparks, business incubators. However, we understand that raw-material branches prevail in the Russian economy, making the innovative component not so important,” Chairman of RF State Duma said.

Sergei Naryshkin believes that we should focus on improvement of state programs and create favorable legal regulations to attract investments in intellectual spheres, high technologies. There are taxation tools which stimulate adoption of new technologies, legislation about special economic zones and special legal status of “Skolkovo” center in Russia, he reminded.

Sergei Naryshkin stressed that much can be done to support innovative activity in regions and the AIRR gives opportunity to discuss work of legislative bodies of the federation subjects in this sphere.

During the session members of the AIRR discussed a number of issues concerning work of the association. CEO of the association Ivan Bortnik reported on activity of the organization and made some proposals.

The Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov suggested accepting five new regions in the AIRR. The members voted for inclusion of the Bashkortostan Republic, Lipetsk oblast, Samara oblast, Kaliningrad oblast and Ulyanovsk oblast.

In addition, new chairman of the Council of the Association of innovative regions of Russia was chosen at the session. Attendees of the event unanimously voted for President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked the AIRR members for vested confidence and promised to make every effort for development of innovative activity in regions and Russia in general.

Members of the AIRR General assembly again chose Sergei Naryshkin chairman of the Supervision council.