Russia Mulls Opening Branch of Skolkovo Tech Hub in Belarus

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED July 26, 2013

A decision to set up a branch of Russia’s Skolkovo high-tech hub in Belarus will be made before the end of this year, the secretary of the Russia-Belarus union state said Wednesday.

“We discussed the issue of creating a Skolkovo branch in Belarus as a structure that would work jointly with Skolkovo on innovation projects,” Grigory Rapota said.

“There is a strict instruction to resolve this issue before the end of this year, and I believe it will be resolved.”

Rapota declined to specify the projects and programs that would concern the Belarus branch.

“Our task is to create conditions for work, and it is the task of the Belarusian academy of sciences to bring content to this work,” he said.

There were doubts about the legal possibility of opening a branch and also about whether this should be a branch or an independent center represented by a legal entity in Russia, he said. “Lawyers are currently working on this issue.”

Seen as a key part of the Russian leadership’s drive to modernize Russia's commodity-dependent economy, Skolkovo is intended to be an ultra-modern science community for the development and commercialization of new technologies.

The main hub, being set up just outside Moscow, will focus on research in five priority spheres: energy, information technology, communications, bio-medical research and nuclear technology.

Topics: Russia, Belarus

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