Exploring the possibility of building a Skolkovo-style tech park in Cuba, a government delegation from the island visited Moscow earlier this month, the Skolkovo Foundation reported.
“The idea and aim of the trip here is to study this example (of the Russian tech hub) to create an analogous project in Cuba,” said Zarays Gutierrez, the head of the Cuban science ministry’s legal department. She characterized her visit as “informative and successful.”
The first Cuban delegation traveled to the Russian tech hub in March, following an initiative of Diaz-Balart, Fidel Castro’s first son who studied at the Kurchatov nuclear research institute within Moscow State University.
In June, following the Startup Village, an industry event organized by Skolkovo, Cuba’s science minister Elba Roza Perez Montoya said her country needed to capitalize upon its intellectual potential.
“In Cuba at the moment there is no single technological center, or tech park, but we have centers of competence in various high-tech spheres,” she said.
“For instance, in the IT sector we have the University of Information Technology attended by 10,000 students. Cuba also has research centers involved in nanotechnology. Each one of these centers could be viewed as a technology park, but they aren’t really like that. Moreover, the theme of commercialization in these centers is insufficiently developed,” she added.
Skolkovo is currently considering admitting two projects from Cuba’s Institute of Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology into the ecosystem, a Cuban representative said.
