Technological Efficiency of the Russian Economy: Facts vs. Perception
The participants of the panel session that took place at the end of the 2nd day of the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum discussed technological achievements of Russian manufacturers, bankers and transport service providers. Opinions of their foreign colleagues who have their representative offices in Russia were also expressed at the session.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Board of Directors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Schneider Electric Company, for which Russia is the 4thmarket in terms of size, said that Schneider Electric supports innovations and import substitution, and expedites production localization. Economic decline, oil price drop and other limitations make people look for new solutions, Mr. Tricoire remarked. Companies have to control their expenses, including cut down power costs (Schneider Electric actually operates in the power industry).
Heinz Hermann Thiele, Owner and Supervisory Board Chairman of Knorr-Bremse AG pointed out that the Russian Government insists on localization and technology transfer at the same time. Mr. Thiele also said that Russia needs improvement in many areas – the industry, customer culture and operators’ qualification. It is impossible to achieve reliability without these elements. Initial investments in projects amount to 25%, but it is the operator who pays for everything in the long run, so the winner will be the one who uses high technology. Thus, it is necessary to take into account the operator’s requirements and cut down long-term expenses, which means high quality requirements.
Anton Inyutsyn, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation said that, in the energy sector, Russia is also solving worldwide problems on mitigating environmental impact, developing hydropower and alternative energy sources. He pointed out that Russian industrial production ensures equipment supplies for power plants: 7 new power units are going to be commissioned domestically and another 29 – abroad. Such issues as investment climate, new heat market models and the fiscal system are getting on the way of technological efficiency development. However, despite of all the difficulties, the fuel and energy complex, nuclear, airspace, railroad, metallurgical and chemical industries are sustainably developing in the country.
Oleg Belozerov, President and the Board Chairman of Russian Railways reported that his Company is regarded in the International Union of Railways as a leading expert in the area of operating platform development. Russian Railways gives full attention to intellectual systems and digitalization: for example, 7.5 thousand of the Company’s trains are managed by an intellectual system.
Sergey Ivanov, Senior Vice President of Sberbank started his speech by announcing that the world is currently on the verge of the forth industrial revolution. Total informatization and digitalization of business processes are the key development drivers. Sberbank already works with Blockchain, Big Data and Machine Learning technologies. Mr. Ivanov pointed out that the market is going to be radically re-arranged in the years coming. He concluded his speech with a statement that “no matter how perfect we get, the culture of customer behavior is important”.
Sergey Ilyinsky, Head of the Press Center of JSC "AVTOVAZ" stressed the significance of the issue of perception in the Russian automotive industry. The industry offers great technological efficiency: firstly, it is a proprietary engineering system coupled with a specialization strategy. Secondly, it is digitalization also mentioned by other participants of the session. Thirdly, the bona-fide suppliers, whose development will create development opportunities for the Company itself.
