In his speech at a plenary session held in Skolkovo’s Hypercube building last month, Viktor Vekselberg, the tech hub’s president, identified the emigration of tech specialists as one of Russia’s most pressing issues.
“It’s a shame to hear Russian speech everywhere when you go to Silicon Valley,” Vekselberg said. “Large [Russian] corporations need to be actively involved in the training and motivation of young people. It is necessary to restore Russia’s prestige in scientific activities.”
Vekselberg considers the prevention of this large-scale emigration of young tech experts to be an important goal for the Skolkovo Foundation.
“We have already begun to argue that to create a successful innovative business, it is not necessary to leave Russia. Today, Skolkovo has more than 900 start-ups, [with] young talented guys – scientists who believed in us. Skolkovo has become an important factor in blocking the “brain drain” from Russia,” he continued.
“The Skolkovo Center for Intellectual Property has helped obtain 100 patents for technology over the past year, [which represents] 25% of all domestic patents. But the situation in Russia with new patents is catastrophic. In sum, all the major Russian corporations together are generating fewer patents than the Siemens company alone,” Vekselberg concluded.
During the session, Vekselberg also announced an agreement had been signed that same day in Amsterdam “to establish the first Skolkovo Tech research center” there.
Although Russia is in need of foreign IT specialists, talented local professionals are often inclined to leave the country. This inclination is stimulated by foreign companies including such high-profile ones as Facebook. The social network’s CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Moscow last October in an attempt to recruit Russian developers to California.
