Ten technologies have been rebooted

The White House is completing work on the “reset” of ten “road maps” in key high-tech areas, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov stated at a meeting of the relevant government commission. Among the topics of the “road maps” are artificial intelligence, quantum computing and quantum communications. If earlier the development of “end-to-end” technologies was more focused on the research aspect, now the main thing for the state is to obtain a specific product and bring it to the market, including with the help of non-state companies.

At a meeting of the Presidium of the Government Commission on Economic Modernization and Innovative Development, held the day before, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov summed up the work of the White House on the “restart” of the “road maps” in key high-tech areas (see Kommersant-Online). The relevant instruction was given to the government by President Vladimir Putin following the July meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. Then the head of state complained that so far the work on the development of “end-to-end” technologies in the Russian Federation cannot be considered particularly successful (see Kommersant of July 18 for more details). “These road maps themselves were developed in some form earlier, but the events of the current year have shown that such a “reset” is absolutely necessary,” Andrey Belousov noted. Among the changes made, the First Deputy Prime Minister noted the transition from the research nature of the development of technologies to their practical application: “If earlier road maps and the development of technological areas themselves were more focused on research, now industrial designs and the launch of a series of products that embody various technological directions.

Another innovation is the openness of the “road maps” and agreements on them, which provides for the opportunity to join the projects for any companies that have experience in the relevant areas. Previously, large companies, primarily state-owned ones, could participate in the implementation of projects, and, according to Andrey Belousov, they began to “suppress” other developments that are on the market. Thus, the government decided to change the approach to working on the development of high-tech areas and rely on the involvement of private business: companies are required to take responsibility for developing technologies and bringing products to the market. In addition, industry start-ups will have access to the road maps. “This is where our register of innovative companies, which we created this year, came in handy. Now it has more than 10,000 organizations, these are potential participants in the road maps,” said Maxim Reshetnikov, head of the Ministry of Economy.

The government has also developed a procedure for an independent examination of the results of the “road maps” and monitoring of the results. To do this, a special expert council is being created at the White House, which will include representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education and Science, the President’s Special Representative for Digital Development, and specialized committees for each high-tech area. The Council is due to begin work early next year.

Yesterday, the government and a number of companies signed renewed agreements on cooperation between business and the state on five “road maps” of high-tech areas. About 480 billion rubles are provided for the implementation of all high-tech areas for 2023-2025, of which 55 billion are budgetary funds and 424 billion rubles are extra-budgetary. According to Maxim Reshetnikov, the Ministry of Economy agreed with the Ministry of Finance after the signing of the “road maps” to start work on additional sources of funding based on the parity “ruble to ruble”.

Venera Petrova