MOSCOW. May 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia should aim to increase its expenditures on R&D to 2.5% of the GDP.
"We set the task to increase our expenditures on R&D, including using private investment, to some 1.8% of the GDP by 2015. This is still less than in some leading countries, in the U.S. it's some 2.5%, but we will be moving in the direction of this level," Putin said at a meeting in the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He recalled that the federal budget expenditures on civil science increased to 323 billion rubles in 2011 from some 30 billion rubles in 2002.
The president reiterated that scientific organizations and universities will be actively involved in innovation development programs of companies with state capital and the modernization of the defense industry.