Davos Forum: "Skolkovo needs transparency"

On January 27, 2011, a special session dedicated to the modernization of Russia "Russia's next steps to modernization" was held in Davos as part of the ongoing economic forum. The session was headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov. At the very beginning of the session, a video was shown telling about what has been done and what is planned to be done in Russia in terms of modernizing its economy, infrastructure, and improving the investment climate.

Thomas Friedman was the moderator of the discussion. One of the questions from the audience was asked by Esther Dyson, Director of EDventure Holdings. She expressed her doubts about the "transparency" of the Skolkovo project. "I would like to add transparency to the Skolkovo project, from top to bottom. I really want the Skolkovo project to be successful. After all, it is connected not only with modernization, innovation, but also commercialization. My friends in Russia are now very skeptical about this project... What is missing now is transparency in contracts between Russian and American companies... My company is small, does not depend on Skolkovo and has nothing to do with it... It is necessary to change the attitude to business, and this is not easy... ". Also, Ms. Dyson expressed her concerns about the misuse of funds in the Skolkovo project.

To which Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov replied as follows. "The head of the board of the Skolkovo Foundation is the President of the Russian Federation, and he appointed people who ensure all transparency in order to attract people to the selection of projects," said I. Shuvalov. "If you think that this process is not transparent enough, I would like to understand - in what sense?" he asked. "When I talked to other investors who work in Skolkovo, they said that they like Viktor Vekselberg, and they like how he works with investors," the first Deputy Prime Minister said. "We have a lot of skeptics about Skolkovo, many believe that Russia should invest in existing innovation centers," admitted I. Shuvalov. However, "the idea is to build something completely new, which will show an example of how to do business in a new way with Western partners and innovative companies," he explained.