Technology exchange and the foreign business sector in Russia

Abstract

Russia disposes of a number of leading-edge product/process technologies, and of a broad range of technological capabilities, but lags in some key product/process technologies, and, for historical reasons, over the whole area of organisational technology. There is, therefore, a strong basis for developing business-sector R&D collaboration between Russia and the advanced industrial economies, and the argument is strengthened by reference to the experience of the countries of central-east Europe. But the scope for technology exchange is still far from exhausted in the Russian case. Collaboration is in practice seriously hampered by the weaknesses of the Russian business environment, the general sense of political instability in the country, and by fears on the part of the Russian side that their science and technology will be ‘stolen’. Explicitly R&D-oriented policies can do little to solve such all encompassing problems, but better general policies for the business sector could have some impact. By the same token EU-Russia dialogue can best facilitate R&D collaboration by concentrating on the improvement of the overall regulatory and governance environment in Russia.