Arkady Dvorkovich invited to head the fund "Skolkovo"

The current president of the fund Viktor Vekselberg is hampered by sanctions.
10.05.2018
Vedomosti
Origin source
Vice-premier Arkady Dvorkovich can lead the Skolkovo Foundation. The fact that he was offered this option was told to Vedomosti by an employee of the government apparatus and two people, one of whom knows about this from people surrounded by Dvorkovich, and the other from several federal officials. The information was confirmed by the person whom Dvorkovich himself told about it. Such a proposal, he said, came from the chairman of the government, Dmitry Medvedev. The name Dvorkovich was not on the list of candidates for deputy prime ministers, publicly proposed by Medvedev.

The Skolkovo Foundation was created under President Medvedev. From the very beginning, the owner of the Renova Viktor Vekselberg has been the permanent head of the fund. Now he combines two posts. As the president of the fund, he is responsible for relations with state bodies and determines the direction of development of Skolkovo. In addition, he is co-chairman of the board of the fund. A particular position that Dvorkovich may take has not yet been discussed, says his acquaintance.

The chairman of the board of the foundation according to his charter is elected for two years by the foundation's board, but the procedure for replacing the president of the fund in the charter is not prescribed. The change of Skolkovo's manager could be required due to the fact that Vekselberg was in April in the US Sanction List of SDN (Specially Designated Nationals), say two officials. Citizens and companies from the United States can not conduct business with such people. Dvorkovich has not yet been included in the sanctions list. He was one of the authors of the fund's idea and has been a member of its board of trustees since 2010. For the past four years he has been very closely involved in Skolkovo, another government official said.

Representative Dvorkovich declined to comment, a spokesman for Vekselberg said that he did not know anything about the possibility of changing the status of an entrepreneur in Skolkovo. A representative of the Skolkovo Foundation said that he was not aware of the possible appointment of Dvorkovich. The members of the council of the fund interviewed by Vedomosti also do not have this information.

As a result of 2017, the Fund supported more than 1800 start-ups, 300 residents and 25 centers engaged in R & D are located in the buildings of the technopark. Revenues of residents of Skolkovo amounted to 33 billion rubles by the end of 2017, and by 2020 it should grow by a third to 44 billion, Vekselberg said at the end of last year. Developed "Skolkovo" and as a development project: by 2020 it was planned to finish building more than 1.1 million square meters. m production, office and residential premises.

On the development of Skolkovo in the federal budget for 2018-2020. laid about 11 billion rubles. in year. The Skolkovo law gives start-ups the opportunity to take advantage of tax benefits, develop faster and attract financing, said LETA Capital partner Alexander Chachava. Skolkovo lacks scale: a critical mass of projects, venture funds, start-ups should be built up for breakthroughs - it's better not to be 2000, but 10,000 to 20,000, says Pavel Gudkov, deputy general director of the Innovation Support Fund (also known as the Bortnik Foundation).

In Skolkovo, one of the most transparent in Russia systems for the distribution of grants, expertise, although start-ups can be difficult to pass all the necessary procedures, and grant funding is less.

As deputy prime minister, Dvorkovich oversaw agriculture, industry, fuel and energy, transport and energy. His influence was the maximum when making decisions in the field of transport and electricity, the official said. But many decisions on the oil and gas sector were made by the presidential commission for the fuel and energy sector, whose executive secretary is the chief executive director of Rosneft Igor Sechin.

Rumors about the possible resignation of Dvorkovich from the post of deputy prime minister appeared long ago, officials say. But for Dvorkovich himself, the decision turned out to be unexpected: he expected to retain the post of deputy prime minister, one of his acquaintances confirms and confirms the official of his apparatus.

Officials

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