French Innovation Centre Chairman: Skolkovo must be saved

Russia’s project of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre must be saved, since its closing could completely discredit the country’s innovative way of development and keep foreign companies away from Russia for a long time, the Chairman of French Innovation Center Sophia Antipolis Dominique Fache says.

Three years ago, Fache subjected the idea of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre to harsh criticism, providing a number of reasons why the project was unviable. However, he holds the opposite opinion now.

At the time, I spoke out against Skolkovo and explained why. However, now I think that Skolkovo must be saved. As the saying goes, you can not throw out the baby with the bath water. The thing is that the idea of Russia’s innovative way of development can be completely discredited now. Skolkovo involves international companies such as IBM, Microsoft, so do you think that they do not suffer from this situation? I believe that the approach to Skolkovo should be changed, it needs an uncompromising audit to see what works and what not. Skolkovo must join the list of Russian economic development projects. If the innovation center closes, foreign investors will no longer be interested in Russia in the near future, - he said.

If you want projects to be successful, you need to transfer them to the regional jurisdiction. You should not concentrate resources in megalopolises, where people have no needs because they got everything they need. There is no need to interfere in the management, but you need to create infrastructure - build railroads and highways. The state should fund universities and science, build an adequate credit system of research projects, - he said.