Russian Regions: Siberia - Innovation & Modernisation

[Chris]

The word innovate, both in Russian and English, conjures up the idea of doing something creative, inventive and of course new. Its Latin root, the word innovare, has a somewhat different meaning: to renew or refresh.

Renewal is in fact the aim of the current innovation in Siberian cities and towns. From Krasnoyarsk to Tomsk to Irkutsk, Siberians are seeking out new ways to improve their quality of life and their local opportunities. In this special publication, we discuss the challenges, failures and successes of Siberians as they try to modernize their economy.

That economy includes some of Russia’s — and the world’s — biggest operations in oil and gas extraction, mining and energy production. Meanwhile, Siberia is home to prestigious universities and research labs, which could be engines of the region’s development. But, as the federal government acknowledged in a strategy paper published online last year, the region is entrenched in its role as a supplier of commodities to the rest of Russia, China and other countries.

Energy conservation provides an example of the complexity of the challenges facing Siberia. One energy analyst interviewed by The Moscow Times said he hadn’t heard of Siberian companies trying to use less oil and gas, while another said Siberian conservation efforts were aimed at consumers, not companies. Since President Dmitry Medvedev made energy efficiency a major part of his modernization plan in 2008, there has been a push to install meters, use energy-saving light bulbs and take other steps at the consumer level.

But getting a return can be difficult. State-controlled AltaiEnergo, which delivers electricity to 168,000 square kilometers near the Kazakh border, told The Moscow Times that it spent 106.7 million rubles ($3.6 million) on metering and other conservation efforts in 2009. It said it expects the expenditure to yield annual savings of 650,000 rubles ($22,000) — a rate that will produce a return on investment in 165 years.

We cover both problems and solutions in this magazine. Irkutsk lags in technology terms, but we tell you about a section of the city planned for startups. Meanwhile, near Lake Baikal, officials and tourist operators vent their frustrations over a factory from the 1960s that literally pollutes their dreams of development today. We look at modern medical equipment and record-keeping as ways to address health care problems in the region. And we map out high-tech centers, to point out where scientists and entrepreneurs are searching for technological solutions.



If you want to know more you can download a free pdf report here  by The Moscow times in Russian and English.