"Young entrepreneurs stopped to be afraid of state officials"

The first self-driven passenger aircraft and Lada Kalina car, powered by hydrogen fuel - where were these inventions made? And why being a technology park tenant is not only fashionable, but also profitable?
Marat Kashin talked about it in the “Goals and Funds” program with the Chairman of the board of directors of Kalibr Technopark, the Head of the committee on industrial and investment policy of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mikhail Kogan.

- I know that KalibrTechnopark entered the top five in Moscow and the top ten across the country. Tell us why it is so good.

- The Russin Association of Clusters and Technology Parks makes such a gradation. This is worth paying attention to, because they are judged by several indicators that are fairly objective. And for this graduation, we are ahead for the third year - it is very pleasant that our work is so appreciated. We have been working for only four years, we received the status of an industrial park in 2015, and we received the status of a priority investment project of the city in 2018. And this is such a peculiar assessment of our activities in the previous time: the city trusts us, believes that the status of investment project speaks for itself.

Technopark is a territory, a property complex, which has a status, certain benefits, where the development of innovative industries takes place. We are trying to do this. Of course, I can’t say that all the 58 companies that we have are super-innovative, but most of them are really moving forward.

- And do you give preference to those who develop innovative production?

- Of course. This causes certain difficulties. When we provide premises, we consider not just companies, we do not take everyone in a row, there must be a certain correspondence.

- Do you provide only premises? Or equipment too? In general, what is included in the package of services? Why do companies that develop innovative production tend to go to the technology park?

- Technopark is a special territory, we have a certain status. Our task is to develop the company. We are the infrastructure for development, that is, we provide not only premises. I must say that the provision of premises is a big question, because we have individual approach to each company. A company that wants to stay with us gives us the information about what it needs. I believe that it is wrong and unfair to compare us with a simple development company - we prepare the premises for each company personally, it requires some additional costs, a lot of attention of our specialists. Any innovative company requires additional energy resources, since most companies are energy-intensive, and this is a completely different situation.

- It is true that all technology parks in Moscow have a specialization?

- Yes, there is specialization, but it is not mandatory, it is a practical requirement, because we cannot develop companies in all directions. We have specialized premises for one or another field, we hold events, for example, seminars or colloquiums, conferences in one direction or another. It is impossible to cover everything, so any technology park identifies certain areas.

- Tell us about your direction. Do I understand correctly that these are drones and additive technologies?

- We identify six priority areas: instrumentation and metalworking, additive technologies, autonomous vehicles, telecommunications technologies, medical research, and the last thing we are trying to develop are creative industries. This is a very trendy area associated with the digital economy. But we are only at the beginning of the journey. In 2015, it was decided that our specialization would be drones and additive technologies.

- Can you give examples of the successful activities of the tenants, who, perhaps, were able to successfully apply their inventions, were able to somehow significantly expand production, and do something else outstanding?

Outstanding things cannot be born every day, that’s understandable. One example of success is a hydrogen engine, our company Ev-Tech LLC is now trying to get a patent, developing this invention. The company "Endoprint" LLC produces titanium "spare parts" for a person, if necessary according to an individual operations are performed, people are inserted these "spare parts". Among well-known companies from creative industries is Solstudio Textile Group, which is the first in our country to do digital printing on fabrics, it is really a very interesting production. Sergei Sobyanin came to us and opened this production at the end of 2018. And there are many interesting IT companies. We also have a well-known company Animaccord, which produces cartoon "Masha and the Bear" - they have a very interesting animation production. And, by the way, in connection with this, at the end of 2017, we opened a children's animation technology park.

-And I know that you take children on excursions.

- With excursions in general is an interesting story. Who would tell me many years ago that we will take people on a tour for production ... Now we are participating in the city programs "Plants for Children", which are organized by the Moscow City Government through the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development. In the animation technology park, not only excursions are conducted, the children are really engaged. There are only 16 children's technology parks in Moscow, one of them is ours.

I read that your territory is large enough, and you are allowed to test drones there.

- Yes, this is a unique object - we organized a training ground for autonomous vehicles, it imitates an ordinary street. And this is very important for specialists - you have to watch how it all works in real conditions.

- Is it true that a company can get any tax benefits or subsidies for the purchase of equipment if it becomes a tenant of your technology park? And what kind of equipment is this?

- Benefits can be obtained, now there are a lot of them. These are subsidies, these are guarantees of the Moscow city government. We are like a window for companies to communicate with Moscow city government. But we must admit that getting them is quite difficult technically. There are certain indicators that companies must fulfill. There should be a certain performance.
We help our tenants who wish to receive benefits in accounting, in some legal matters. We have a group of people who work with the tenants.

More than 27 million rubles in terms of benefits were received by small and medium sixe companies from our technopark. The economic situation, of course, contributes to this. And, to be honest, young entrepreneurs stopped being afraid of the Moscow city government, and we are contributing to this.

Did you teach them how to work with the state officials?

- We are trying to do it. I can’t say that I was directly taught. Technopark is the environment. We try to make both young companies and companies that already have work experience and their production feel comfortable. This is very important. By the way, for this, a committee was created at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce. I believe that there are very few places where you can communicate, conduct dialogue - first of all, of course, with state officials - to ask questions, to receive answers. And to - most importantly - hear their opinion, do you understand? And so the last meeting was quite successful. It was dedicated to the Moscow Innovation Cluster. The head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development Alexei Fursin came to the meeting and Vladimir Platonov, president of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also participated in the event. This meeting was held as a dialogue: questions were asked, answers were received, opinions were expressed. I think this is a great achievement. So, we are going to continue this dialogue, because there is a lack of information. Despite the fact that the development of digital economy can be estimated in figures, even the report of the Higher School of Economics on the digital economy says that for those who are coming to work, one of the conditions for hiring is still the ability to work in a team, that is, the ability to communicate. Whatever his digital skills, whatever his computer technician or programmer, the ability to communicate and work in a team is still a priority. The environment of the technology park allows in various industries to help, just listen. Why are they coming to us? We have a great desire to help business.

Link to the original source: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4190387