OREANDA-NEWS. A Russian-Swiss forum titled “Innovation Options and Problems in Contemporary Russia and Switzerland” has opened in Lausanne. The forum organizers are Russian Honorary Consul to Lausanne Frederik Paulsen Jr., the Russian Federal Assembly State Duma deputy group for liaison with the Swiss parliament and the Lausanne Federal Polytechnic University supported by Swiss central and canton authorities and the Russian Embassy in Switzerland.

Director of the CCI of Russia Department for Foreign Relations and Liaison with Business Councils Vladimir Padalko addressed the forum.

Switzerland is an important European partner of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia, he told the audience. The Chamber actively cooperates with a broad range of Swiss organizations, among them the Switzerland-Russia Cooperation Council, the Swiss-Russian Forum Foundation, the Union of Swiss Businessmen ECONOMIESUISSE and the Swiss-Russian Industrial Business Club. Honorary Envoy of the CCI of Russia Artyom Kazakov has been working in Zurich since September 2011.

Vladimir Padalko expressed gratitude for assistance and support to the Russian Embassy in Switzerland and the Swiss Embassy in Russia, the Russian trade mission, the Russian honorary consulate in Lausanne and the Swiss Business Center in Moscow.

He said particular attention was devoted to the relations between Russian regions and Swiss cantons. Cooperation mostly develops between the Moscow, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod regions on the part of Russia and the Geneva, Vaud, Basel, Neuchatel, Bern and Ticino cantons on the part of Switzerland. The formation of a special working group for the promotion of inter-regional cooperation at the Intergovernmental Commission co-chaired by CCI of Russia Vice-President Alexander Rybakov attests the importance of this area.

Two forums established by the CCI of Russia to support innovative projects started working in the end of last year. One of them, the Foundation for Development of Innovative Business, targets combination of numerous small and medium innovative enterprises into a single “scientific and technological network” and use of their potential and ideas to solve concrete high-tech tasks, including those of large enterprises and state corporations, Vladimir Padalko said.

In turn, small enterprises have a huge potential of ideas, products and projects, many of them bold and breakthrough, which are in low demand so far. According to Vladimir Padalko, Russian state companies plan to invest 4.2 trillion rubles in innovations before 2020.

A multi-role unmanned helicopter was the first project fulfilled with the Foundation backing. Systems for cleaning surface drain waters from airfields, methods for measuring wear of hydro-technical complexes and some other projects are being developed.

Another foundation established by the Chamber is the Foundation for Trade and Industrial Innovations, Vladimir Padalko said. Its model of operation is rather traditional: it offers consultative, organizational and financial support to innovative legal entities and individuals who present innovative projects and ideas significant for the economy of a particular Russian region.

This year much attention will be given to the development of innovative clusters. In the majority of Russian regions where innovative clusters have been formed there are powerful and energetic chambers of commerce and industry: Kaluga, Ulyanovsk, Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, the CCI of the Nizhny Novgorod region and the CCI of the Republic of Mordovia. They are actively participating in the elaboration of cluster development strategies and determination of primary business areas deserving support and forms of participation in regional programs of promotion and development of innovative businesses, the head of the CCI of Russia department said.

In conclusion, Vladimir Padalko assured that the Russian-Swiss forum would be a good floor for testing mechanisms of cooperation between the authorities and businessmen of Russia and Switzerland in innovative development and modernization of the two economies, mutually beneficial exchange of high technologies, joint implementation of large-scale high-tech projects and further development of steady business relations and partnerships.