Members of the U.S. delegation appreciated the prospects of cooperation24 Feb 2010
On February 20 the delegation of high-ranking officials from technological companies and the U.S. government visited Technopark of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok. At the round table conference implementation of joint projects in high-tech industry and the opening of the American representatives in Technopark were discussed. Arrival of the American delegation means continued development of bilateral relations in the field of innovation and technology, initiated by the January visit of senior Russian officials responsible for innovation and modernization of the country's development to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
By arrangements achieved within the framework of Russian – American presidential commission, delegation of the following participants visited Russia: the founder of «Twitter» Jack Dorcey, the Head of the company «Ebay» John Donahoe, Chairman of the Management Board «Mozilla Foundation» Mitchell Baker, Technical Director «Cisco Systems» Padmasree Warrior, the founder and Managing Director «Catalyst» Ashton Kutcher as well as the legend of the world venture industry, a woman – cosmonaut Esther Dyson and the Chairman of New York Academy of Sciences Ellis Rubinstein.
At the round table conference the project of Technopark of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok was represented; the question of including American companies as residents of Technopark was discussed. The guests were offered assistance in the establishment and development of Technopark and Business Incubator. Representatives of the delegation were interested in the staffing of Technopark. They especially stressed the idea of forming "new heroes" for young generation and the creation of «success story», which would attract young people to participation in the innovation activities.
A number of innovative companies, implementing promising innovative projects «SFM», «Uniscan» and « Softlab-NSK » followed by an excursion to the company was also presented to the foreign delegation.
According to the State Duma deputy, chairman of the subcommittee on technology development, Ilya Ponomarev, the most important thing was that they got their "agents of influence", which set themselves up for not only direct work. So, when he was in Moscow, John Donahoe from eBay has publicly promised to open a development center in Novosibirsk, and Sherwin Peshawar from SGN designated to Novosibirsk two projects, one of which is to develop drugs for malaria with SFM. The second thing according to Mr. Ponomarev, is that they will have methodological and other assistance in the formation of "silicon valley" project, and it would be easier for Novosibirsk to compete with Moscow for this project. Also, Ellis Rubinstein was proposed to make New York and Novosibirsk sister cities for the deployment of joint innovation projects and the development of Technopark and the Academy of Sciences.
Another positive moment of the meeting was that soon the Americans might soften the rules in obtaining visas for Russian employees of high-tech companies.
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