Skolkovo, the state sponsored innovation hub under completion near Moscow, is expecting an approximate 135 billion rubles, or $4.14 billion, in investment between 2012 and 2015. Part of this sum, at least 55 billion rubles or $1.8 billion, will be a provided in the form of loans from Vnesheconombank (VEB), the state owned bank for development and foreign economic affairs. Another portion of the expected investment is expected to come from the Skolkovo Foundation itself and from private investors, Russian business daily RBC revealed earlier this month, referring to unnamed sources from VEB.
How these means will be allocated within the Skolkovo project, however, remains unclear.
Skolkovo PR department representatives confirmed the $4.14 billion figure to East-West Digital News, noting that $1.7 billion will be allocated to infrastructure needs, including the construction of a university, a campus, the technopark and attendant infrastructure as well as residential areas for future students and faculty. But the representatives declined to comment on what the remaining $2.44 billion was earmarked for.
An additional piece of the puzzle came to light last week from Skolkovo Foundation Vice President Stanislav Naumov, who indicated in remarks made to news agency RIA Novosti during the Runanotech 2011 forum that the Russian state’s financial commitment to Skolkovo from 2010 to 2014 inclusively remains fixed at 85 billion rubles, or $2.8 billion. The Foundation, which received 15 billion rubles from the state budget in 2011, will receive as much as 22 billion rubles in 2012 and 34 billion for both 2013 and 2014, or approximately $.5 billion, $.73 billion and $1.13 billion respectively.
Skolkovo has also raised 2 billion rubles from investors, Naumov added, emphasizing the importance of switching from state to private financing.
The Skolkovo budget is comparable to international analogues – for example Cyberjaya in Malaysia, which required a $3 billion investment – RBC Daily quoted Ilya Ponomarev, chairman of Hi-Tech Development Subcommittee in the State Duma, as saying.
Projects like the Skolkovo innovation hub are expensive to create and maintain, explained New York Academy of Sciences President Ellis Rubinstein to the Russian daily. Considering Russian government ambitions for Skolkovo, Rubinstein commented that the amount of $4.2 billion did not seem excessive.
