Skolkovo is aiming to contribute 1.5 trillion rubles to the Russian economy by 2020, Foundation president Victor Vekselberg said Friday.
Addressing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s commission on economic modernization at the Hypercube, Vekselberg noted Skolkovo’s GDP contribution by 2020 is projected to hit 200 billion rubles.
“By 2030, it will be more than 1.5 billion rubles,” he said. “These figures are entirely achievable,” Vekselberg added.
In four years of existence, Skolkovo has attracted more than 1,000 startups, creating 13,500 jobs and 20 billion rubles in revenue, he said. Skolkovo companies are present in at least 40 countries, Vekselberg noted.
Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg. Photo: sk.ru
An area Skolkovo intends to strengthen is the number of patents filed internationally for new technology, he added.
“We believe it’s completely realistic for Russia to break into the top 10 countries by volume of patent application registered globally,” Vekselberg said.
“For this to happen, we need to increase fourfold the number of intellectual property rights registrations filed to 4,000. By comparison, I’d like to say that China files more than 20,000 international applications, and even then they are only in third place.”
Skolkovo subsidizes the cost of filing patent applications internationally, which cannot help but boost the numbers, Vekselberg noted.
Charged with providing the catalyst for the diversification of the Russian economy, the Skolkovo Foundation’s overarching goal is to create a sustainable ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation, engendering a startup culture and encouraging venture capitalism.