MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Making the operation of science compounds more complicated will affect their becoming and development, President of the League of Assistance to Defense Industry Enterprises Anatoly Dolgolaptev said on Wednesday.
"The stance of several officials with the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies who announce changes in criteria of giving the status of science compound and in their funding system, is not productive; it only contains the development of science compounds," Dolgolaptev told Interfax- Military News Agency.
Deputy Minister of Industry, Science and Technologies Andrei Kulagin said in Moscow on Tuesday that his ministry will make a proposal to President Vladimir Putin concerning changes in the system of science compounds' funding, criteria of giving the status of science compounds, etc.
"This is not the position of the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies, it is the position of some of its officials who have become indifferent to deaf to the essence of three presidential addresses that clearly determine the necessity to develop the innovation economy," Dolgolaptev said.
By proposing introduction of a cumbersome system of giving the status of science compound, the officials willingly or unwillingly contain the lengthy process of developing the innovation economy in science compounds, he noted.
"Each compound has systems of selecting and examining projects. Many have raised funds, though it demands a lot of efforts. Dramatic intensification of this process requires that the state announces its intention to develop the innovation economy through the towns where research and technical capabilities are the most advanced," Dolgolaptev said.
"Speculation about criteria, of which one can come up with a million, about the impossibility to enhance the funding of science compounds only reflect the officials' intention to find a place for themselves in the process," he noted.
According to Dolgolaptev, experience of science compounds shows that revival of innovation-related economic activity immediately brings about "a dramatic increase in their residents' income and budget revenues."
"The tendency to add more procedures in the formation of science compounds is extremely dangerous. The current proposal is to authorize the government to approve programs of science compounds, not end this process at the president. It means that the government will always be able to suspend any program in the future," he said.
"We have been there and done that. The law on the status of science compounds and the government resolution of support of science compounds were not revoked in 1998 only because the president's approval of the revocation was required. That is why at least three towns now have a status of science compound," Dolgolaptev stressed.
Orders from supervisory bodies should be replaced with "independent activity of innovation policy subjects and proper support of the federal center," he said. "Science compounds have done it successfully," he added.