Effectiveness of state support for innovative activities.
The Government has reported on its efforts to implement Presidential Instruction No Pr-2191 of 18 September 2013(Clause 1, Subclause C).
The Government has analysed the effectiveness of measures of state support for innovative activities, including in the sphere of mandatory medical insurance.
State support for innovative activities is provided in accordance with the Federal Law on Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy and the Strategy for Innovative Development of the Russian Federation until 2020, approved by Government Directive No 2227-r of 8 December 2011.
State support for innovative activities is provided in the framework of the Economic Development and the Innovation-Driven Economy state programme and other state programmes stipulating measures to promote innovative development in respective industries.
There have been positive changes in the field of innovative development due to the implementation of measures of state support for innovative activities over recent years. According to statistics, 9.9% of industrial enterprises created and implemented innovative technologies in 2012, compared to 9.6% in 2011 and 9.3% in 2010. The dynamics were especially high in high-tech sectors – 30.1% in 2012, which is the average figure for Europe.
The output of innovative industrial products reached 2.5 trillion roubles in 2012, an increase of 25% from the year before. The share of innovative products in the total volume of goods dispatched and works and services performed was 7.8%, a record-high figure since the monitoring of innovative activities began in the mid-1990s.
The figure is twice as high in high-tech sectors.
Spending on innovative technology has increased dramatically to 583.7 billion roubles in 2012, or 15% more than in 2011, in comparable prices. The rate of spending on innovative technology in industrial production – their share in the overall sales of industrial goods – grew to 1.8% in 2012 from 1.5% in 2011. The highest figure, 5.1%, was reported in high-tech industries and is the average figure for Europe.
A network of development institutions has been created to assist in the implementation of innovative projects at each stage of the innovation cycle and designed as key instruments of Russia’s economic modernisation. The main development institutions are Vnesheconombank, RusNano, RVC, Skolkovo and the Fund for Assistance to Innovations. As private investors became more active and innovation-assistance mechanisms gather momentum, the Russian industry of venture investments has gained the ability to operate without state allocations.
In the past four years, the volume of venture investment in Russia has grown nearly tenfold. According to RVC, in early 2013, the total volume of venture funds and venture sections of direct investment funds operating in the Russian market exceeded $6.7 billion. The total venture investments made in the Russian market in 2012 amounted to $910.6 million, putting Russia fourth in Europe in terms of venture investments in high-tech industries, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
As many as 60 large joint-stock companies with state capital, state corporations and federal state unitary enterprises have implemented innovative development programmes since 2011. They account for approximately 20% of Russia’s GDP, and over 60% of the added value in the mining and manufacturing industries, transport and communications. Thanks to the increase in these companies’ innovative activities, the volume of patenting increased by 17.5% in 2012. In 2011-2012, labour efficiency in real terms, taking due account of the GDP price deflator, increased by 17.7% on average for companies – by 11.4% excluding the oil and gas sector.
Small- and medium-sized companies operate most effectively in introducing innovations. In 2010, measures aimed at promoting innovative businesses and assisting industrial companies were added to the list of priorities of the Ministry of Economic Development programme to assist small- and medium-sized businesses.
A network of infrastructure companies in the sphere of innovations and industrial production was established within that programme in 2010-2012. It includes 13 cluster development centres and two technology commoditisation centres. In 2012, 58 regions were issued approximately 2 billion roubles for assistance to innovation, which was sufficient to support over 1,500 companies.
Legislation on mandatory social insurance stipulates reduced rates of insurance deductions to state extra-budgetary funds for certain groups of taxpayers.
The number of groups paying reduced insurance fees increased in 2011-2013. According to the Social Insurance Fund, the number of policy-holders and the number of employees in these organisations have increased in 2011-2013:
- the number of policy-holders in economic companies and commercial partnerships has increased by 2.74 times and the number of employees by 2.78 times;
- the number of policy-holders in companies that are Skolkovo residents has increased by 4.66 times and the number of their employees by 4.82 times.
In order to continue the policy of assistance to small innovative businesses, draft Federal Law No 348507-6, which amends articles 58 and 582 of the federal law On Insurance Premiums to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation and the Federal Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund of Russian Federation, adopted by the State Duma on 22 November 2013 and approved by the Federation Council on 27 November, stipulates extending the period of reduced insurance premiums (20%) until the end of 2018, including for small businesses that use a simplified tax system and work in industries and the social sphere, as well as for non-profit organisations using a simplified tax system.
The State Duma is currently considering draft law No 385323-6, submitted by the Government on 14 November 2013, which stipulates broader opportunities for IT companies to make reduced insurance deductions to state extra-budgetary funds.