State-owned companies will be obliged to support innovation purchases of domestic hi-tech products

Photo: Vedomosti

The state may oblige state-owned companies to purchase at least 2% per year (of the total amount of contracts concluded) of high-tech innovative products. Such purchases are likely to become mandatory from 2016, Vedomosti reports. They will be obliged to support domestic innovations also for small and medium-sized businesses, such companies will purchase at least 1% of relevant products per year.

Two years after the introduction of the new rules of work, the norms will be increased to 5% and 2.5%, respectively. According to the representative of the Ministry of Economic Development, all this will provide new opportunities for small and medium businesses, it is also a way to increase the demand for high-tech products. Accordingly, the business will get access to orders of state-owned companies, and will be able to develop and implement its own technologies. As for the amount of contracts, only last year Gazprom concluded contracts for a total amount of 817 billion rubles, Rosneft - by 1.4 trillion rubles, plus Russian Railways by 904.9 billion rubles.

According to a study by the Higher School of Economics (HSE), at present state-owned companies invest approximately 16% of their total revenue in innovative programs. The growth of such projects is quite noticeable, for example, in 2010 financing amounted to 172 billion rubles, and in 2013 financing increased to 391 billion rubles. The cost-to-revenue ratio also increased from 1.5% in 2010 to 2% in 2013. 10 state-owned companies provided 80% of the increase in extrabudgetary funding. At the same time, non-budget sources made a small contribution to innovation - only about 0.2% over three years.
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At the same time, only 1-2% of innovative projects meet the criteria adopted in the Russian Federation, Arkady Passerba from the Academy of State Service believes. The main problem in this area is the lack of proper management and proper allocation of resources.

Naturally, innovation is also influenced by the difficult economic situation in the country. Thus, the labor productivity of non-oil companies slowed down the growth - from 10% in 2011 to 3% in 2013. Now companies have to look for access to new markets, including the market of import-substituting products.