OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2011. The Board of Directors took notice of the information on the elaboration of the Gazprom Innovative Development Program until 2020.

The Company's Management Committee was tasked to submit the draft Program to the Board of Directors for approval in June 2011.

The meeting participants noted a high level of Gazprom's technological development. In order to create innovative products and technologies the Company cooperates with a wide range of leading R&D institutes and centers as well as with a number of domestic and foreign companies. Pursuing an import-substituting policy and imposing strict quality requirements on the products, Gazprom fosters introduction of cutting-edge technologies and solutions by the Russian equipment manufacturers.

The Board of Directors stressed that through timely adoption and implementation of the Innovative Development Program Gazprom would ensure a substantial growth of its technological potential and competitive ability in the global energy market in the long term.
Background

In January 2010 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave the assignments aimed at developing the innovative activities and raising the technological level in companies with state participation.

The Gazprom Innovative Development Program is being elaborated in accordance with the said assignments. The Program will represent a document designed for long-term planning andmanagement of the innovative activities. It will be applied to all of Gazprom's gas, oil and power generation businesses. The document will contain a full list of engineering, economic, financial and organizational measures needed to satisfy the Company's demand for modern equipment, machinery and technologies.

The Program will cover the entire innovative cycle from an engineering solution development to its industrial application, connect all elements of the Company's organizational and financial mechanisms related to various stages of the innovative process and regulate the interaction of the parties involved.

Gazprom will elaborate the corporate investment programs and R&D programs with due consideration of the Innovative Development Program.