Rustam Minnikhanov takes part in business breakfast organized by Investment and venture fund of the Republic of Tatarstan

On December 9, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in a business breakfast organized by Investment and venture fund of the Republic of Tatarstan on the occasion of the ceremony of awarding winners of the 10th anniversary contest “50 best innovative ideas for the Republic of Tatarstan” (Korston hotel). The business breakfast was dedicated to achievements, prospects and tasks on commercialization of technologies.

Director General of OAO “Russian Venture Company” Igor Agamirzyan, CEO of Russian Venture Capital Association Albina Nikkonen, representatives of ministries and agencies of the Republic of Tatarstan took part in the event.

The moderator of the business breakfast was Director of non-profit organization “Investment and venture fund of the Republic of Tatarstan” Ainur Aideldinov.
Participants of the event discussed the following issues: Why are results of researches not used outside laboratories? What prevents startups from developing into successful businesses? How to attract investors to innovative activity?

According to Ainur Aideldinov, any innovative idea goes through several stages before it gets into the market, such as engineering, development of the concept and design, and production. He also called participants of the event for thinking about why only the very few innovative ideas were brought to production and made a considerable contribution to economy of the republic.

The project implemented by “Energolesprom” company that was founded under the auspices of Investment and venture fund of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2007 was presented as a positive example. The company developed a sample of the plant for processing low-quality wood into liquid fuel. Currently, technology scaling from the pilot to experimental-industrial level is underway. The company director Andrey Grachev, who took part in the event, noted that they have to deal with complicated tasks to become an efficient enterprise.

Many speakers noted that lack of infrastructure, including engineering companies specializing in implementing innovations in production is the main problem in Russia at the moment.