Softness will be added to grants – Newspaper Kommersant No. 26 (7471) of 02/13/2023

The Ministry of Economy proposes to lower the entry thresholds for potential participants in the grant program for “growing” technology companies. The need for this amendment is due to the fact that excessive requirements for grant applicants in 2022 cut off more than two-thirds of potential participants from the program. A draft government decree prepared by the department proposes to noticeably soften the requirements for minimum revenue and the level of extra-budgetary co-financing for applicants for budget support. In order to expand the range of consumers, the requirements for the size of corporations that order high-tech products from grant recipients will also be reduced.

The Ministry of Economy has prepared a draft government decree expanding the number of possible participants in the grant program for “growing” technology companies as part of the “Rise from Startup to IPO” federal project. Now grants in the amount of 25 million to 250 million rubles. issued to companies to bring their high-tech products (in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced space systems, etc.) to meet the requirements of large customers. (see Kommersant dated November 23, 2021). The operator of the program is ANO “Center for Engineering and Innovation Support”. 18 largest corporations, including Gazprom, Rosneft, Russian Railways and Rosatom, are participating in the “growth”.

The need to amend the program is caused primarily by the fact that excessive requirements for grant applicants cut off more than two-thirds of its potential participants. “69% of interested technology companies, after getting acquainted with the conditions of the competitive selection and the requirements for its participants, did not submit applications,” the Ministry of Economy admits in an explanatory note to the project.

As a result, in 2022, only 103 applications were submitted for the competition for the distribution of grants – 32 winners received 4.75 billion rubles. (in total, the budget for 2022–2024 includes 10 billion rubles for this). More than 50 technology companies could not take part in the competition due to non-compliance with the requirement for annual revenue – this is at least 500 million rubles. So now the Ministry of Economy proposes to reduce this threshold to 300 million rubles. In addition, about 30% of applicants could not participate in the selection due to the high level of extrabudgetary co-financing (at least 100% of the requested grant). Now the threshold is proposed to be linked to the company’s revenue: with a fork from 300 million to 2 billion rubles. it is reduced to 50%, from 2 billion to 4 billion rubles – to 70%. For large enterprises with revenues from 4 billion to 10 billion rubles. the threshold is proposed not to be changed.

Changes are also proposed for customers. The lower limit of revenue for them is reduced from 100 billion to 40 billion rubles. The explanatory note to the project states that this will allow attracting up to 30 new customers to the program, primarily large machine-building enterprises. The approach to accounting for revenue is also changing – it is proposed to calculate it for the entire group of enterprises of the customer corporation.

The Ministry of Economy hopes that grants will allow companies to integrate into the supply chains of corporations and squeeze out or completely replace foreign manufacturers. “It is extremely problematic to implement such projects without state support; credit financing is not suitable for them,” the department told Kommersant.

Yuri Simachev, director of the Center for Structural Policy Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, believes that the proposed measures are caused by the desire of the authorities to intensify technological development, moreover, in the interests of the largest companies that are faced with restrictions on access to modern technologies due to sanctions. “The level of technological dependence is quite high in mechanical engineering, so there the task of technological upgrade, transition to Russian technologies is quite acute,” he notes.

Alexey Kuchmin, a member of the General Council of Delovaya Rossiya, notes that the “growth” mechanism is aimed at creating conditions for the emergence of new technological leaders. “Changing the conditions of the program is a long-awaited measure that will allow promising projects to receive state support,” says Evgeny Lyapunov, Deputy General Director of Rosseti.

Venera Petrova