The government demanded to learn how to make chips, machine tools and robots in Russia in 7 years

On Thursday, the Russian government approved the Concept of Technological Development until 2030, in which it obliged scientists to radically increase the number of inventions, and entrepreneurs to create production from scratch in science-intensive and high-tech industries as soon as possible.

According to the document, in 7 years Russia should have “its own scientific, human resources and technological base of critical technologies”, and should be almost entirely supplied with products traditionally imported from developed countries.

We are talking about integrated circuits, microelectronics, precision machine tools, robotics, drones, as well as medicines, medical and telecommunications equipment. By 2030, domestic production should cover 75% of the national economy’s demand for these goods.

In the 1990s, as a result of the “front liberalization of the economy”, the scientific and technical system “collapsed”, “loss of the possibility of implementing large scientific, technological and industrial projects”, and the economy switched to the “technology import in exchange for raw materials” model – we read in the strategy.

According to the document, from the mid-2000s, the process of “accelerating technological development” began again and an attempt was made to reintegrate it into the global scientific space. But this did not bring results: since the early 2000s, the share of Russian inventions in the world has fallen by half, to 0.9%, and the number of people employed in science has decreased by a quarter, the authors of the document admit.

“The Russian economy remains critically dependent on imports of microelectronics, bioengineering and a range of other high-tech goods and services,” the government states.

It’s an addiction. according to the concept, it should be eliminated in the coming years under sanctions and technological isolation. Thus, the number of enterprises using innovations should increase by 60% by 2030, and the number of patents for inventions of Russian scientists – 2.4 times.

Last year, according to HSE estimates, applicants from the Russian Federation filed 18,970 know-how patent applications, which is the lowest number in 13 years of available statistics. Compared to 2016, the number of Russian inventions decreased by 30%, and compared to 2010, it almost doubled.

In order to implement the ambitious plans, according to the concept, the government intends to launch at least 10-15 research and production megaprojects. “As priority mega-projects, the production of civil aircraft lines, including unmanned aerial vehicles, development and production of medium- and high-speed diesel engines, machine tools and robotics, equipment for the production of liquefied natural gas, turbines, microelectronics, low-tonnage chemicals and pharmaceutical substances should be distinguished” – we read in the document.

The goal is to achieve “technological sovereignty”, the strategy emphasizes. Moreover, the authorities plan to achieve this without significant investments. Last year, for the first time in six years, state spending on civil science was reduced from 626.6 to 569 billion rubles. And their noticeable increase is not included in the budget: 597.2 billion rubles in 2023 and 580.7 billion in 2024 (data from the Higher School of Economics).