The US Ambassador to Russia, John F. Tefft, has signaled his country’s continuing support for the Skolkovo project, noting in a speech at Startup Village that the relationship will not be imperiled by political tensions.
US Ambassador to Russia, John F. Tefft. Photo: sk.ru
Tefft was one of several ambassadors attending an event for diplomats at Startup Village, a two-day innovations conference hosted by Skolkovo at the Innovation Center outside Moscow.
“I’m here today partly to testify to the continuing interest of the United States in this project,” he told a crowd of high-level diplomats, among whom was Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg.
“As you can tell, we’ve been involved I think from the beginning. Obviously, when you have an institution like MIT deeply engaged in this, it shows real commitment.”
Tefft was referring to the Boston’s university’s partnership with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, a key relationship that buoys the Skolkovo project.
“We believe in America in innovation,” he continued. “Innovation in a globalized world is absolutely essential. Whether it’s engineers, scientists or entrepreneurs, you have to cultivate innovation and then you have to work on an international basis and build that cooperation into commercial success,” Tefft said.
“The Skolkovo Foundation has played a very positive role in encouraging businesses. In a way, it’s already started to do that, but much more lies ahead. We think that this business-to-business, people-to -people cooperation has benefitted our bilateral relations, and yes, as Victor (Vekselberg) noted, we’re not in a particularly good time on a government-to-government basis, but we’re continuing our work, and will continue our work, when it comes to businesses and the people-to-people contacts,” Tefft said.
Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg. Photo: sk.ru
“The Skolkovo Foundation here has been critical … we have a lot of American companies that have been involved here. Just to give you a sense: Boeing, GE, IBM, Honeywell, Intel, Microsoft are all engaged in Skolkovo.”
“I congratulate you and your team, Victor, on what you’ve done, I look forward to seeing some of the startup projects, and I assure you of our continuing interest in this important, international venture.”
As Tefft was being introduced, Skolkovo vice president Alexander Chernov wondered aloud whether the United States might host a stage of next year’s Startup Tour in Anchorage, one of the biggest US cities close to Russia’s Far East.
“I’ll call the Mayor of Anchorage this afternoon and we’ll see if we can work that out,” Tefft joked.
Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg, meanwhlie, called for increased cooperation among the research communities in different countries.
"It’s very important for Russian to create a new generation. I believe that your visit to Startup Village will strongly motivate you to send back to your country this message," he said.
"Here at Startup Village you will find out who we are, what we do and how we do it, what our plans our, what our successes are, where our flaws are. We are absolutely open," Vekselberg added.
Japan's Ambassador Chikahito Harada, who is also well acquainted with the Skolkovo ecosystem, first visited the terriroty in 2011.
"It was a huge, beautiful greenfield around with only a few buildings under construction," he said.
Japan's Ambassador Chikahito Harada. Photo: sk.ru
"Since then, Skolkovo has not only been greatly changing its outward appearance, but also the efforts to build a world-class innovation hub has been making remarkable progress. I pay high tribute to Skolkovo in this regard. … Innovation has become a very important common challenge of the global community and requires international cooperation."
"The Japanese government supports the cooperation between Japanese companies and universities and Skolkovo and Skoltech. I would like to express my appreciations to Mr. Vekselberg in his efforts to strengthen his cooperation with Japanese universities and corporations. As a result of his efforts, major Japanese companies such as Panasonic and Japan-Medical Corporation have already concluded cooperation agreements. Many other Japanese companies are considering following these companies," Harada said.
The Grand Opening of Startup Village came at 1100 local time, led by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.