Government Support to International S&T Links

As the political and economic situations stabilize in Russia, the attention given to S&T issues will increase. In all probability, the state will have the main burden of organizing, maintaining, and regulating Russia’s international S&T activities.

Governmental policy for international cooperation must capitalize on the decades of experience of other nations. However, simple imitation must be avoided, and foreign schemes must be adjusted to Russian conditions.

In addition to the political, economic, and socio-cultural features of Russia, public policy must take into account the differences in the technological level of particular sectors and fields of S&T. A policy of cooperation in vanguard fields (such as aerospace and defense branches) must be established; this policy can be based on the experience of the most advanced countries. Many high-technology and basic sectors should also study the policies pursued by newly industrialized nations. Finally, in some cases (particularly mining branches, light industries, and food sectors) public policy should study the approaches that have been successful in developing countries.

Russia’s technology policy has several features in common with international S&T policy of market economies. First, national security concerns have led to the control of technology exports. There has been a change from unilateral to multilateral control, from the control of immediate products and technologies to control over their national destination and from centralization to decentralization (creation of intercompany units). In view of these developments the Russian system

of regulation must implement a clear system for controlling technology exports that are oriented to strategic national interests. Better controls will allow Russia to join international control systems which, in turn, will provide opportunities for more exchanges of applied R&D results.

Second, applied R&D is better promoted by government efforts to create a fa-vorable climate for international cooperation than by direct government subsidies for international projects. The government should work on ensuring large-scale orders for Russian products and services. Such activity is particularly important in government procurement, large construction projects, and commercial aviation.

Financing of exports at below-market interest rates is also important, particularly for large orders for products produced by sectors that have received government assistance. Russia has not yet developed a system of export regulation and pro-motion. Export control activities are dispersed among the Ministry on Science and Technological Policy, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Eco-nomic Relations, the State Committee for Industrial Policy, the Ministry of Defense Industry, as well as other agencies.

Two important areas requiring government support are infrastructure improve-ments and information dissemination. Abundant data enabling business circles to watch world trends in technology development, to search for partners, and to ex-amine the competition should be collected in data banks on advanced technologies.

These data banks should be established, maintained, and accessible to interested companies. Many nations also have S&T attach´es in diplomatic missions to monitor foreign S&T progress; Russia should do the same.

Tasks have been assigned to the Russian government through international agreements in the field of science and technology as well as by bilateral and multilateral intergovernmental bodies on the issues of R&D cooperation. These arrangements provide a legal framework for international contacts at different levels. Russia urgently needs to establish international agreements on protection of investments and double taxation and to join international efforts against piracy of intellectual property rights. Russia must also undertake the task of setting up a legal framework for foreign direct investments in S&T. The model law on foreign investments, currently under development by the OECD with experts from CIS nations, may provide a significant contribution. Coordination of efforts to attract foreign investments has been assigned to the Russian Center for Assistance to Foreign Investments, recently founded at the Russian Federation Ministry of Economy. At the same Ministry, an Information Center for Foreign Investments has been organized to create data banks on specific investment projects for potential foreign partners.

Another task is to increase the budget financing of large intersectoral and sectoral international applied R&D projects. A prototype of such a structure may

be found in the activities of the Russian House of International R&D Cooperation established by the MSTP with the aim of investing in international applied R&D projects.

Considerable value has been attributed to indirect methods of governmental control of international S&T transactions. A system of taxation and customs regulations must be established for both Russian R&D institutions and their foreign partners. The status and privileges of free economic zones are yet to be formulated;

such zones could disseminate information on advanced foreign technologies.

The state is also responsible for providing standards for certification of products and procedures. These standards must be rigorous yet favorable to international transactions. The government must also develop the human resources of S&T including training researchers in international transactions. Management training for S&T international transactions should be introduced.

Russia must establish membership in the most important international eco-nomic, science, and technology organizations. Membership in these organizations will not only provide benefits to researchers but also protect Russia’s national interests.

The prospects for greater Russian participation in international R&D activities are favorable. The world is about to take a qualitative technological leap, and cur-rently much effort is devoted to ensure sustainable development. In the transitional periods, favorable conditions are being created for involvement of new participants in international R&D activities of which Russia will be the largest. The Russian government should actively promote S&T cooperation with foreign partners using a variety of policy tools.