IT sector in Russia: jumping over the gap between expectations and reality

IT sector in Russia: jumping over the gap between expectations and reality


Engaging in the IT sector in Russia today is akin to a feat - cooperation with foreign partners is very difficult, while a large number of professionals have gone abroad. The Russian Association of Electronic Commerce reported that after the start of the special operation, about 50-70 thousand IT specialists left the state. And, despite the fact that some of them returned in the summer, according to experts, the outflow of IT personnel from the country in the near future may be 2-3 times higher than in the spring. And without the development of high technologies, full state sovereignty is impossible. About how to achieve it in the changed conditions and do it as quickly as possible, "MK" was told by experts from the Institute for the Economics of Growth. P.A. Stolypin.

Most of the aircraft drones produced in our country do not meet the requirements of the Russian Defense Ministry, its representative, Colonel Igor Ischuk, said on September 27. In his opinion, manufacturers are not able to meet the requirements that the Russian military department imposes on such equipment. “And the main problem of non-fulfillment is the element base,” Ischuk said. He added that because of this, the military department "is forced to go for simplification, for additional agreements, for the acceptance of UAVs into operation in experimental mode." And if, under the conditions of a special operation, the whole Ministry of Defense admits such “sins”, then we can talk about the failure of the entire previous policy in the field of high technologies.

Over the answer to the question of what prevents Russia from becoming a leader in the IT field, the authorities have been struggling for decades, but things are still there. It would seem that there are enough resources, and the level of technical education in our country is high, and there are examples of successfully operating companies — antivirus programs, search engines, fintechs, and even government services — and Skolkovo and Innopolis have long been built. But the events of 2022 have shown that there is nothing special to brag about. “Our lag in technology has already reached an unbridgeable abyss, unfortunately,” says Sergey Mendeleev, CEO of InDeFi Smart Bank. - All this has been happening since the late 80s, in fact, before my eyes, when the microprocessors produced by our research institutes did not differ much from their Western counterparts, only since then trillions of dollars of consumers have been invested in their technologies, and miserable millions from the budget, most of which was plundered. We all see the results."

Russia is now in a situation where there is no time even to find and punish those responsible. Something urgently needs to be done to catch up, if at all possible. “At one time, Japan bought 15,000 patents around the world in 10 years and not only managed to achieve independence, but also become a net exporter of technologies,” recalls Anton Sviridenko, director of the Stolypin Institute. But achieving such success in the current environment will require unprecedented measures and a well-thought-out state policy, and not a game of wishful thinking, as has largely happened already in import substitution.





In our country, the interest of the authorities in high technologies is great, but disproportionate. It seems that there are many good statements of intent, for example, in June, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin at the Innoprom exhibition said that our country should quickly achieve technological sovereignty, and its economy should move from a catch-up model of development to a leading one. However, the question remains open about the existence of a unified strategy with goals, a plan for industries and tasks that need to be completed, and it is also unclear what will happen if they cannot be achieved, whether punishment for sabotage or incompetence will follow, for example. “At the moment, support and attention to various technological industries from the state is disproportionate,” says Natalya Popova, First Deputy General Director of Innopraktika, public ombudsman in the field of protecting the rights of high-tech leading companies. To support individual industries, there are specialized ministries, development institutions, as well as programs and strategies adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, for other “unfashionable” industries, there are not even specialized departments within ministries and the possibilities for attracting funding are extremely limited. So, firstly, we need a well-thought-out policy that includes stimulation of companies. “It is topical to spread tax incentives for the IT sector — social contributions and income tax — to technology companies from other priority areas,” Popova continues the topic. - In total, we have identified 10 such areas with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. This is especially important in the context of the working capital gap that companies are facing due to the global situation.” At the same time, there are not so many enterprises with economic and technological characteristics of national champions. Together with the Ministry of Economic Development, we managed to digitize this entire array of companies with revenues ranging from 1 billion to 15 billion rubles. They turned out to be no more than 700 companies throughout the country, which does not create significant shortfalls in income from the budgets of the Russian Federation, the expert believes.

Second, research and development (R&D) should be supported. This can be done through the formation of new and expansion of existing sites. Obviously, for a huge Russia, the examples of Skolkovo and Innopolis alone are not enough. According to Sviridenko, it is more optimal to form strong scientific and technological centers in the format of clusters. “There are such people in the world: both in Germany and in the USA, since they themselves are not formed in Russia, dirigisme is possible here (the policy of active intervention in economic management by the state. - Approx. ed.), - the expert believes. “And zero taxes on science and technology. The United States took this path after the first Soviet satellite flew over them.” For example, if Russia is strong behind in the field of microelectronics, but there is no other way how to create its own strong microelectronics center. “South Korea recently announced a program for the development of microelectronics worth 80 billion rubles,” Sviridenko emphasized. “China is $100 billion even bigger. There should be an analogue in Russia as well.”

Separately, it is necessary to think over the personnel policy. A good education alone is not enough if all those who graduated from a first-class technical university in Russia dream of working in Silicon Valley or Elon Musk's companies. It is necessary to create motivation to retain professionals within the country. The state is already taking some good steps in this direction. For example, employees of IT companies today can already take a preferential mortgage at a rate of up to 5%. This is lower than a family mortgage and much better than market conditions. In total, it is planned to issue loans for 240 billion rubles. We need to expand this program. In addition, motivation should be considered through a system of additional payments for the development of patents or their implementation, for example.

It is also necessary to create a plan for the development of the domestic market for the consumption of domestic innovations by companies, as well as the possibility of entering the markets of friendly countries - for example, India, Iran, Brazil, China, etc.

If the authorities really want to move towards sovereignty, then a serious, wide-ranging and consistent state policy is needed - from the most favored nation tax regime to such subtle details as restricting the export of raw rare earth metals and organizing related industries, for example, microcircuits. A ready-made plan for Russia to achieve sovereignty in the field of high technologies can be found by studying the NEP 2.0 program of the Stolypin Institute. There is no time left for buildup in Russia, it is time to move from good statements to concrete deeds.



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