In Moscow the Roscongress Foundation hosted an online conference under the theme of ‘Pandemic 2020: Opportunities and Obstacles for the Innovation Sector’.
Participants discussed the problems encountered by the technology sector during the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; support tools that startups need at the moment and forms of assistance companies are receiving through cooperation with investors and development institutions; as well as opportunities and limitations for technology projects.
Mikhail Antonov, Deputy General Director, Director for Innovative Infrastructure Development, RVC JSC, said that, according to the survey carried out by RVC in late March in the technology sector, companies see the highest risks in retaining their teams and compenetces: «Today the technology sector is very focused on staff retention. Most respondents emphasized the urge to take corresponding measures. They suggest inventing mechanisms to adjust salaries and prevent highly skilled Russian specialist from moving to foreign companies that can pay quite a lot. That said, almost 40% of the companies stated that they have a good growth potential during the crisis.»
Veronika Fidler, Chief Investment Officer, VEB Ventures, noted that we need to not only consider the current issues that have emerged due to the coronavirus pandemic and volatility of the national currency, but also work on long-term forecasts: «From the perspective of new investments, the current situation does not imply reformatting of the development strategy. As we planned initially, we have identified key industry niches that are still of interest. For us this crisis just means higher risks in the areas currently being in technical default. For now, we are not inclined to buy assets that are undervalued due to the circumstances. We look at investments more broadly and stick to our priorities: urban infrastructure, energy, medical sector, green technologies and digital solutions.»
RUSNANO, agreed that the key objective for hi-tech companies is retention of human resources. RUSNANO stands out for immediate adoption of a comprehensive support programme for the hi-tech industry that will help preserve what has been created over the years by the companies that managed to complete the project concept stage and have moved further towards its implementation, he said.
Speaking of prospects of hi-tech sector support, Mikhail Fedotov, Director of Subsidiary Foundations, RVC, first of all asked to keep in mind the limited financial resource factor. In his opinion, not all funds will be able to finance the projects; it is likely that their investors (LP) will not be ready for such measures. So both founders and funds should proceed from the negative scenario and rely on their own resources, while actively developing partnerships.
The broadcast is available on the Roscongress
TV YouTube channel and on the official
Roscongress Foundation Facebook page.
