Small innovational business undertakings: passing from words to deeds

“Innovational business undertakings are the most vulnerable part of Russian business. Innovational business is unique and at the same time too complicated since it includes all other spheres of business in it: production, trade, management and marketing. Accumulating these spheres the innovational business uses the potential of these branches from one side and from the other side gathers all possible problems of these branches” – the Minister of industry and innovational policy RB Robert Vagapov said at the last meeting of the Government RB, headed by the President RB Rustem Khamitov.

The key problems of innovational business are: the absence of the legal base at the federal level: extremely low demand in innovational business: the staffing problem; imperfect financial mechanisms of innovational activity; unfavorable economic background; low motivation of researches and still unsolved problems with the intellectual property.

In opinion of the Minister the main problem of those innovational enterprises, which have really serious intellectual potential is that they need expensive material and technical base for making the pre-production models. As it is known, banks reluctantly credit innovational small business because of high risks. The venture funds or “business angels” are present in Russia but their activity can still hardly be called efficient.

In this connection Robert Vagapov believes it is necessary to establish and develop the following mechanisms and forms for support of the innovational business: first, this is the system of venture financing and at that the system of the venture funds should be oriented not only at the selection of the projects but also at the selection of the funds for the right to finance such projects.

Second, this is the assistance to formation of the captive venture funds of the industrial enterprises. The captive fund is the venture capital, invested to the daughter companies of either industrial or trade monopolies and banks.

One more way is making the scheme of motivation for innovational enterprises.

In order to make the innovational sphere really interesting for the producers one has to create the competition, possible only under profitable financial incentives, such as the tax preferences (on the profit tax, property and land taxes etc), reduction of the tax load for techno-parks and industrial parks. One more direction is provision of the small innovational enterprises with the energy resources and rented facilities at preferential terms and “tax holidays” for newly established small innovational companies. Besides, in order to support innovational small business one has to create necessary infrastructure. Seven techno-parks, three business incubators, two technology transfer centers, two venture funds and 23 production and technological centers are opened in Bashkiria. In the nearest future the techno-park “PETF-Bashkortostan” at JSC “POLYEF”, the industrial park “Gas-Chemistry Center-Salavat” at JSC “SALAVATNEFTEORGSINTEZ” and the techno-park of energy-efficient technologies at “RUSHYDRO”-ALSTOM” will be opened.

Besides, in opinion of the Minister many problems of the innovational business fail to be solved because of the lack of coordination between various ministries plus the shortage of the competent managers, able to advance the innovations in the market. Here the elaboration of the multi-level refresher courses, including for the innovational business and venture funding, and opening of the specialized portals and specialized sites is necessary.

In case all these problems are solved, one may pass from words about innovations to the real deeds.