Why does Russia need technopolises: GS Group vision

Investment and industry holding GS Group presented its private innovation cluster at St. Petersburg Technical Fair, held from 12 to 14 March. GS Group’s Technopolis GS provides a successful and promising model for development and support of small towns in Russia. The holding representatives explained how and why private industrial parks can promote innovation in the country no less effectively than state corporations.

Andrey Bezrukov, Acting Director for Strategic Marketing, GS Group spoke on “Corporate innovation infrastructure: investing in the future”, disclosing the subject using the example of  Technopolis GS innovation cluster, developed by GS Group holding in the Kaliningrad region. The speaker delivered his report at the conference “Investing in the future: program to attract investment, support and development of innovation in the enterprise”. In the course of the discussion, participants raised such issues as investment and development of startups focused on production.

Mr. Bezrukov told about the systematic transition of Technopolis GS from industrial park to innovation cluster, and presented it to the audience as a successful model of Russian small towns’ development. GS Group holding demonstrated the effectiveness of industrial diversification in such town that can be implemented on the basis of a private innovation cluster.

Technopolis GS was founded in 2008 near Gusev, the town in the Kaliningrad Region with a population of less than 30,000 people. Over the past years, six modern industries have been launched on its territory. Now they produce goods in different fields, from microelectronics and nanomaterials to packaging and house-building. Technopolis GS is the largest employer in Gusev, as many as 2000 people work at its enterprises (as of the beginning of 2014). By 2016 this figure will increase to 5000 people, including those working in the sphere of high technologies in which at least 3 000 people will be employed.

“Technopolises with developed innovation infrastructure can become the most effective form of bringing up the industrial potential of Russian small towns, and the example of Technopolis GS clearly demonstrates thisd”, Andrey Bezrukov noted. GS Group Director for Strategic Marketing shared with the audience the holding’s vision of the current situation and experience in developing innovative structure, as well as technology transfer and investment in hardware startups.