Modernization program aims to make Tomsk a high-tech capital

Skolkovo isn’t the only Russian city with intentions of becoming an innovation capital.  The Russian government is also fostering modernization in Tomsk through the “Inno-Tomsk 2020” project that aims to promote a positive climate for innovation and small business development in the city and surrounding region. 

Tomsk became a Special Economic Zone for Technological Innovation in 2005 with goals of becoming a major center for R&D activity in the nanotechnology, biotechnology and IT industries.  Since then it has become a hub for innovative projects such as:

• A Rosatom and Rusnano joint venture to produce nitrogen trifluoride for LCD displays and thin-film solar batteries
• A Tomsk Polytechnic University and Semiconductor Research Institute joint project to develop an LED lighting R&D lab
• A federal and Rosatom project to develop a nuclear medicine center with facilities for manufacturing radioactive tracers and high-tech medical devices.
• The development of Eastern Russia’s first certified nano-testing center
  

These projects as well as the regional government’s efforts to promote technology industry investment through fiscal incentives and infrastructure development have earned praise for the region, with Forbes including Tomsk in its list of 30 Russian cities leading the way in socioeconomic development.  A delegation from the city also presented its high-tech products to foreign investors at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, bringing global exposure to the region.

Analysts predict that Tomsk’s modernization program will increase its output of high-tech products to a quarter of total goods produced and attract foreign talent to help drive its development. The key to the program’s success, however, will be infrastructure development, particularly the construction of a high speed rail line to facilitate greater knowledge exchange between Tomsk and other innovative Russian cities such as Novosibirsk.

What are the most important factors to high-tech sector development and what can Russian regions do to better promote it?