Almaty, 27 September 2011. The delegation of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) headed by Victor Bolyasnikov, Deputy Chairman of the EDB Executive Board, is taking part in the CIS International Innovation Forum in Kyiv. The EDB is also taking part as an exhibitor in the international exhibition “CIS Innovations,” which is held at the forum.
The forum participants include representatives of the Ukrainian government, CIS executive bodies, ministries and authorities. The forum has been organised to celebrate the CIS’ 20th anniversary. It is expected to help develop cooperation between the CIS countries in the innovation, research and engineering spheres, attract investment in breakthrough high-tech sectors, and enhance cooperation in high-tech competitive production. The participants share experience in the sphere of innovations, research and technologies and discuss common problems of all the CIS countries.
In his speech at the forum’s plenary session, Vladimir Yasinsky, Member of the EDB Executive Board and Head of Research, said that the Bank focused on projects with advanced technologies which were new globally or in the state where they were applied for the first time. In particular, in 2010 the EDB enhanced its innovation project portfolio with a US $100-million Usolie Sibirsky Silicone project, Russia’s first large-scale production of polycrystalline silicon.
Other innovation projects include the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant; the mass production of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional passenger jets; and the Kazfrak project to utilise and process associated gas. The innovation projects account for approximately 25 per cent of the Bank’s investment portfolio.
The EDB Technical Assistance Fund finances some projects to support innovations in the Bank’s member states. In 2010 the Bank financed the project “Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine: Forecasting Opportunities and Mechanisms for Their Implementation.” This project with a high integration effect has been fulfilled jointly by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of National Economy Forecasting and the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economics and Forecasting.
“This is the second study sponsored by the Bank’s Technical Assistance Fund,” said Vladimir Yasinsky. “Both these projects have the same purpose — the development of cooperation between Russia and Ukraine, with the maximum use of their scientific and technological potential. It is no accident that the Bank has financed preparation of the Blueprint and the Programme for the Development of Economic Cooperation between Ukraine and Russia until 2020, which had been initiated by the presidents of these two countries.”
“When making decisions to finance these projects, the Bank proceeds from its own interests,” emphasised Vladimir Yasinsky. “We try to lead and see in what sectors and investment projects our participation can be the most efficient. These are primarily high-tech sectors with significant innovation future such as aircraft engineering, nuclear power, and shipbuilding.”
Talking about innovation projects supported by the Bank in other EDB and CIS member states, Mr Yasinsky said that in 2010 the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) released its Innovation Performance Review of Belarus, which had been prepared with the EDB’s technical assistance. Its purpose was to provide recommendations to stimulate innovation activity in the country, enhance its innovation capacity and improve the overall efficiency of the national innovation system in the context of regional economic integration. The Belarus’ government has recommended that the project findings be widely used to implement the country’s innovation policy and this is already happening in practice.
A similar project is being fulfilled now by UNECE in Kazakhstan, with the EDB support.
