Rusnano looking to place Russia on the high technology cutting edge

The Head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, says more innovation companies will come to market over the next few months, as his organisation looks to address framework issues for promoting Russia as a major high tech centre.

Several Russian innovation companies are planning to hold IPOs in the next few months, with Russia’s MICEX stock exchange setting up a trading floor for High Tech companies following the US Nasdaq exchange. The news came at the second international nano-technology forum in Moscow.

The first company to float will be the Human Stem Cell Institute. It will issue twenty per cent of its shares in the next two months.

Anatoly Chubais, the head of Rusnano, one of the organizers of the Innovation Exchange, spoke with RT. 

“We had the first meeting of the coordination council of the Russian Market for Innovation and Investment on Wednesday. We plan to hold the first IPOs over the next few months. One of them is the Human Stem Cell Institute, and we have several others in the pipeline.

President Medvedev says Russia has the world’s largest nanotechnology investment program – what are the key sectors you are investing in, what kind of projects. There is no need to identify the key sectors. We ourselves still don’t realize what nanotechnology can give us. We know for sure there will be a technological revolution in lighting systems and we need to invest. We are moving also into solar power. But it’s dangerous to exclude something – saying, no, this is risky. The most important thing is not to miss anything.

The sector sounds very risky. Should the government risk public money or should it simply be making life easier for investors. For example, modernize the patent laws, increase funding in universities, reviving Russian science

Here in Russia we have a lot of results from Research & Development in Nanotechnology, but we have few patents and even less business. We’ve almost lost the patent culture. And the reason is clear. If there is no business that wants to acquire the results – so why bother with patent laws. .The patent problem exists. But it’s not the root of the problem. It’s one of the obstacles to deal with. We are now preparing some radical measures in the field of intellectual property.”