Andrey Belousov named the main drivers of the country’s technological development

The international forum “Open Innovations” was held in the Skolkovo technology park on April 10-11 and brought together more than 4 thousand participants. The business program included 48 sessions, including those devoted to applied technologies, development of the culture of technology businesses and the formation of a self-sufficient technological base. At the Open Innovations Expo, which was organized as part of the forum, technology startups presented their innovative developments.

The forum was attended by First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov and the Minister of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Reshetnikov, as well as the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for digital and technological development Dmitry Peskov.

Competition and education at the forefront

During his speech, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said that the driving force of technological development is factors such as competition and the development of human capital.

“I believe that without competition we will not create demand for new technologies from large and medium-sized companies,” Belousov noted. Among other things, he is convinced that the most important driver of technological growth in the country is the training of specialists in digital transformation. It is precisely such personnel that will be able to link digitalization with corporate governance for the further prosperity of companies

Andrey Belousov also outlined priorities for domestic high-tech. These are such areas as artificial intelligence, medical technologies, semiconductors of electronic components and new computing methods.

“High-tech business helps to increase labor productivity, implement solutions related to AI, processing and storage of big data, and intelligent control systems in production. High demand allows technology companies to show revenue, wages and employment three times higher than the average for the SME sector,” stated Maxim Reshetnikov.

Technological sovereignty is a serious challenge

Special Representative of the Russian President for Digitalization and Technological Development Dmitry Peskov urged not to forget about the risks of the widespread introduction of artificial intelligence for national security. “Our goal is technological sovereignty. And this is a very serious challenge. When deciding to deploy these technologies to critical infrastructure at the national level, we must take this key risk factor into account,” Peskov explained.

Rostelecom President Mikhail Oseevsky pointed out the importance of establishing partnerships with innovative private businesses. “If we see that there are leaders on the Russian market who can solve the problems required by the company, then we begin to build complex interactions with them. We believe that a private company that works well, has strong owners and an effective management team, the most important thing it needs is sales guarantees and orders. To do this, we use the mechanism of forward contracts,” he said.

The departure of foreign IT companies from the country had a positive impact on the Russian economy, says Ekaterina Solntseva, Director for Digitalization of Rosatom State Corporation. “A huge market has become free, demand has emerged from enterprises and a real opportunity has arisen for the development of Russian industrial software. The emerging demand not only contributes to the replacement of our software with products from departed vendors, but also gives the domestic industry a competitive advantage thanks to new approaches to software development,” she clarified.

Prospects for the development of AI in Russia

AIRI Institute General Director Ivan Oseledets considers the development of generative design technologies to be one of the promising areas for the use of artificial intelligence. In his opinion, they will be useful not only in the entertainment industry, but also in industry.

First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Alexander Vedyakhin stated that artificial intelligence has already been introduced into many areas of the company’s work: “Artificial intelligence has already been introduced in 85% of Sberbank’s processes. In 2023 it was about 75%. In 2024, the bank plans to earn 400–450 billion rubles in profit from artificial intelligence.”

The scientific director of the “Quantum Information Technologies” group of the Russian Quantum Center, Alexey Fedorov, noted that Russia’s gap with world leaders in the field of quantum computing has narrowed, and in a number of areas our country has taken a leading position.

Unique technological capabilities

The speakers who spoke at the plenary session discussed investment tools for technology development and accelerated launch of finished products to the market.

Serial High Tech entrepreneur Vladislav Martynov spoke about new schemes for raising money by technology startups: digital tokens and financing through ICOs. “The speed now is such that if you haven’t created a product and declared yourself in a few months, you’re late. These new mechanics can significantly accelerate the development of Russian technologies both within the country and abroad,” Martynov is convinced.

According to the participants, the venture capital market, the volume of which has been declining in recent years, is beginning to revive – investors are looking for promising innovative projects and are ready to invest in them. More than half of the country’s venture market today is in the capital. According to the head of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development, Kristina Kostroma, the capital’s authorities are relying on comprehensive support for technology entrepreneurs. “It’s always something set up to expand and scale. Do you want to buy equipment to create new types of products? – We will return some of the money to you. Do you want to be in a technology park? – We will give you a site, investment loans and so on. There has always been a focus on development,” she said.

Chinese economist Andy Xi shared with the audience his view of the technological future of the world. “Now they say that China is conquering the world. This is actually not true. China is going through a completely normal development process. China is a big country, and in some areas the results are indeed better than other countries. But we are not talking about the fact that opportunities are closed for other countries,” the scientist concluded.

Let us recall that the “Open Innovations” forum organized by the Skolkovo Foundation (VEB.RF Group) has been held in Russia since 2012 and is one of the influential discussion platforms on innovative development. The forum is co-organized by the Moscow Government.

Photo: Press Service Materials