Russia needs a culture of innovation and 'business angels' to modernize and make economic breakthroughs, the Russian President's newly appointed adviser Mikhail Abyzov said on Thursday.
Abyzov, 39, ranked 76th by the Forbes’s 2011 Russia Billionaire List with a fortune estimated at $1.2 billion, was appointed on Wednesday to coordinate the work of an ‘open government’ and work out mechanisms for its interaction with government agencies. He also chairs the board of directors of E4 Group, one of Russia’s largest engineering companies.
"We need a qualitative demand on innovation products and regional demand is only the first step to form an innovation sphere. We should ... develop such thing as innovative business environment," Abyzov said.
He also said that Russia had lack of innovation culture.
"As for crediting, such development institutes as Rusnano and Skolkovo form financial instruments which seem to be enough for creation of innovation projects, but a sector of primary micro-crediting of ideas has not been developed. I mean, crediting by so-called angel funds," the adviser said.
Angel investors are private individuals and corporate entities that invest their funds in innovative start-ups.
