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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Good evening dear friends!

I'll try to reflect a bit on our country's innovation policy. I will not speak in platitudes about the fact that the economy of the future is an innovation economy. I will not say that we should do everything we can so that the Russian economy becomes such an innovation economy. I think that these are truisms for all those present in this room.

Unfortunately, the problem is another: we do not yet have an innovation economy. And it is our job to make sure that our economy starts to have innovative aspects, innovative structures and, indeed, takes on the characteristics of an innovation economy, the economy of the future.

You know that a significant portion of our discoveries, inventions and simply technological advances – things which are actually the very essence of creativity – have so far been implemented abroad. This, of course, is very sad for Russia, but on the other hand it represents a real challenge to which we must find an answer, one that is not only scientific, but above all organisational, legal and, if you will, institutional. In other words we must create the conditions to ensure that our discoveries, our inventions, our know-how, and our technological advances are patented, registered and commercialised in Russia. This is probably the most important thing.

Moreover, we still do not have a normal system to scout talent. I understand that everyone sitting in this room is obviously among those who could make any list of nominees for the prize proud, but nevertheless we have a significantly higher number of talented people in our country than this, and we have no system to find them. And perhaps this is also one of the major goals that we should work together to achieve.

And one more thing, the creation of the innovation system itself. How to create it? Representatives of business are here today and they understand that this kind of system is not a product of presidential decrees, nor created by any purely public infusions. It must be a large public-private programme – and by programme I do not mean one with a lot of paperwork, but rather real work. This is a long-term reference for work in years to come.

Today we do deal with these issues, but as of yet very little has been done: a framework for such creative activities has been established, part four of the Civil Code has entered into force. Despite the fact that it has been criticised by inventors and people close to the patent community, this nevertheless represents a new step in the development of our civil legislation that governs relations in these spheres. I hope that this framework will facilitate the development of the entire system for patenting inventions and simply future innovations.

In addition, we are encouraging the development of scientific and technical fields. You know that some time ago we approved a five-year programme of basic research that the Russian Academy of Sciences is now working on. We set up a Russian nanotechnology corporation. Moreover, the government invested quite a lot of money in its authorised capital (Anatoly Borisovich Chubais who now heads this corporation is here today), and we all expect the corporation to engage in real projects and have a major impact.

There are other programmes as well: like that for scientific and educational personnel in an innovative Russia, which covers 2009 to 2013. Not long ago, a presidential decree established special presidential awards for young scientists working in science and innovation, and we expect to present them on the Day of Russian Science — February 8th. So in just a few months there will be the first nominations for this presidential prize.

Now, how to move forward. You know, I've also thought about this. Once again let me repeat: governmental incentives are simply not enough to turn every corroded part of our economy into an innovative one. Even if huge amounts of public money were to be allocated, they would be spent inefficiently. Therefore we should develop a system that will first and foremost stimulate private business to engage in innovation, starting with small, medium-sized enterprises and ending with the giant ones.

We have yet to establish such a system. And this system should be created by using different instruments for economic and fiscal incentives, and it should develop with reasonable proportions because, as we know, in our country almost 80 percent of research and development activities are financed by the government and only 20 percent by business. And in this period of financial turmoil, of course this proportion might tip even more in favour of the state.

In other countries we witness the opposite situation: the vast majority of this type of financing is done by private investment. Public participation is only 20–30 percent, but the issue isn't even the specific numbers, it is just quite a different perception of innovation among businesses, because even 10 years ago our businesses were very reluctant when innovation was concerned.

The challenge was how to survive, to earn the necessary money for core activities, but not how to create a modern economy built on knowledge and the commercial impact of this knowledge.

Now, of course business understands that there is no future without this kind of investment. Nevertheless, we must say frankly that the state has not yet established the conditions that would force businesses to think everyday about how to invest any additional rubles so as to promote innovation and not to wander off in any other direction.

Of course the government will spend billions of rubles for this purpose, you should have no doubt in this regard, but we are also waiting for an appropriate and consistent response from Russian business. Some of those present are already representatives of Russian business and some will become part of the business community. I would also like you to listen to these words.

Once again I emphasise that the government's task consists in making businesses feel that it needs them to spend money on innovation, that they are being treated correctly, and are receiving the appropriate incentives. This is particularly important now that the entire global economy is, in fact, in recession, and requires new methods to pull it, the global financial system and other state systems out of this very difficult situation. Therefore despite the difficulties of the current period, as we used to say in previous years, I am confident that we can achieve very good results.

In any case, the prizes that were just awarded and the innovations that occasioned them seem to me to be extremely positive. We simply need to work together, to create good, efficient, modern instruments, and we must not be shy about telling one another the truth, looking into each other's eyes, no matter how difficult that may be.

I wish everyone success, new ideas and new projects, including in the coming year – the Year of Youth.