In the course of the meeting, the president promised a set of quite attractive terms to lure foreign companies into the country and to make them create high-tech innovative products.

Medvedev proposed to introduce a 10-year tax holiday in the area – that is, zero tax on profits, property and land over 10 years which can really make a difference to companies’ bottom line and allows them to focus on going ahead with innovative products.

The proposal comes as part of Moscow’s efforts to create a high-tech innovative economy on the basis of ones in California, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

However, Medvedev added that the final step of approval still must come from Kudrin, Russia’s powerful finance minister.

For his part, Kudrin said that before getting access to these low tax rates, the companies will first need to prove they are capable of creating world-class innovative products.

“We’re searching for companies that produce something new, innovative, unique that would be later implemented in other parts of Russia for industrial use,” Kudrin told RT. “In fact, we already have similar benefits for companies that work in technology promotion zones. There are five such zones in Russia. In the case of Skolkovo, we will even provide some extra benefits, such as another tax break that uses the revenue as a benchmark.”

Russian businessmen have welcomed the Skolkovo initiative, even though they believe the country’s economy may need some more reforms.

“I think it’s very useful to try and incentivize the creation of high-tech industry, but the most important thing for government to do is decrease the amount of red tape in the economy, make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to get along,” the head of the research department at Renaissance Capital, Ronald Nash, told RT. “I don’t think Russia should underestimate its home brands. If there’s a brand that’s unable to compete in its home market, it probably should think about restructuring anyway. Russia’s gone through one of the biggest transformations in history over the last 20 years. It’s not only survived, it’s prospering. Big companies should do the same. They should allow the competition to make the change in all Russian companies. Russia needs to pull the government away from the economy, not get it more involved.”