Angara to receive a new venture fund and a nanocenter

Today, on March 6, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Irkutsk Region, the Minister of Information Technology, Innovation Development and Communication Viktor Nechayev has met with the journalists in Irkutsk FederalPress center. It was the first press conference he gave as the head of the ministry, established only in December 2011.

According to the expert, among the main tasks of the ministry is the implementation of several major infrastructure projects, which include the creation of a nanocenter. Despite the fact that the project was not among the contest winners of OJSC RUSNANO and it is not known what structure will become the general investor, the project, according to the minister, should be implemented. In the near future a corresponding institution will be registered.

Negotiations with potential investors are already underway and, as noted by Victor Nechaev, the fact that the partners will not include Rosnano will probably allow to implement the project in a shorter period of time. Its total cost is estimated at 1.5 B RUR, the share of private investment about 700-800 M RUR.

In addition, as the Minister reports, soon the Legislative Assembly will examine the allocation of money for the creation of a venture fund and fund of mixed investments, whose projects will be implemented in the region. After the allocation of funds a competition for fund management will be announced, the winning company will be obliged to raise the fund for another 400 M RUR of investments - Victor Nechaev says. - With the help of various technologies, including the participation of the Russian venture capital fund, the amount of regional fund can grow. The administration of Irkutsk has also expressed its readiness to allocate 200 M RUR for the formation of the fund. Further, under the supervision of the regional government the projects will be selected, but with not more than 15% of the fund to be sent to the project implementation.

There is a great potential in scientific research, a large number of scientists, talented young people in the Irkutsk region, - Victor Nechaev says. - We have a great number of developments, but the lack of commercialization is quite obvious, few find the implementation in industry and other fields. The main objective of our ministry is to function as the integrator, bringing together the efforts of scientists, business and government, and make really outstanding breakthroughs.