Tycoon Vekselberg to oversee the creation of Russia’s Silicon Valley dream project
Business tycoon Viktor Vekselberg will coordinate the efforts and programs to create the Russian Silicon Valley that will be situated in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo, President Dmitry Medvedev announced in March at the meeting of the State commission for modernization and technological development of the Russian economy. “In view of the scale of this project, its realization should not only be of interest to state structures, but, first and foremost, Russian businesses,” he noted. “Therefore, after relevant consultations on the right candidacy for this job, I have decided that Vekselberg will oversee the Russian part of the coordination structure that will be created to execute this project.”
According to state strategists, the Silicon Valley is to become a new innovative center, a sort of a prototype of a ‘futuristic city,’ which will serve as a polygon for the development of new economic policies in Russia. Specifically, the center will focus on five priority directions - energy, telecom, information, biomedical and nuclear technologies.
The Moscow suburb city of Skolkovo, currently home to the nation’s only elite Higher Business Management School, won the battle for housing the Russian analog of the globally famed U.S., California-based Silicon Valley, having beaten the country’s other competitive higher educational and scientific centers as Tomsk, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Obninsk and Dubna.
Justifying his Skolkovo choice, the Russian president said that ‘a serious foundation’ has been laid in the town as speed is an important factor in the realization’ of this project. In fact, according to Kremlin’s plans, the Silicon Valley will house well-equipped branches and laboratories of Russia and foreign countries’ leading universities and companies. “We hope that within a few years, the best scientists and engineers will be working in the town as the best working conditions will be set up to attract the best engineers, scientists, designers, programmers, managers and financiers from all the globe,” the president said.
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