Foreword to the monograph “Problems of market economy development”

Nikolai Yakovlevich

PETRAKOV

Academician, Head of the Economy Department of the Social Studies’ Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Director of the Institute of the Market Matters of the Russian Academy of Science

Nowadays, as I see it, the general tendency to make all the spheres that should be paid for, – education, health care service, and transportation – is being carried into effect... All these issues are not announced from tribunes, but actually all these ideas are put into practice.

And everything is developing in a very odd way. For example, the essentials’ import (food and consumer goods) is growing again. We artificially inflated the ruble’s rate; we made the same mistakes which resulted in a crisis in 1998. Inflation for the recent 7-8 years has grown for 70-80 %, but the dollar exchange rate has changed very little. Instead of the production development, we have to import the goods due to oil and gas sale.

The USA dollar’s rate is artificially lowered, because B. Obama offered the program on overcoming the crisis. He understands that first of all it is necessary to finance science, and as for our country, very little means are allocated to science, in comparison with the advanced western countries. The Americans print dollars (conduct emissions) for the sake of it. What is the main principle in our country? The law is that if we add in some place, it means, that we certainly take away from the other one. If we raise the pensions then we have to raise the tariffs for the electric power, for the natural gas, for rent and so on.

The proclaimed course on enhancement is rather strangely combined with the attitude towards scientific researches. As it is known, the total academic budget in our country is equal to the budget of an average American university. As for the “Skolkovo” ideas, they seem very attractive, but it is not clear, why those tens billions which have already been invested into Skolkovo, were not invested into the development of the centers which had already existed in our country for a long time? We mean such centers as Dubna, Novosibirsk Academic Center, Troitsk and other points where our science had already been developing for a long time.

I saw the Silicon Valley in the USA; I was there in 1989, long before it was visited by the Russian president. In the USA the main principle is that a scientist is a proprietor of the research. The Californian universities located in the Silicon Valley, have the system according to which scientific centers “lease” their laboratory equipment to scientists. And a scientist, who invented something, has the right to dispose of this intellectual property. This system, at which a scientist is the owner of the intellectual property, is very important. In our country we don’t have such laws, and it seems to me, that our leaders do not understand, that the right of the intellectual property is the most important right for an inventor.

I do not know, in what way the “Skolkovo” idea will be carried out. They say there will be some preference for the scientists coming from the West, any privileges under the custom duties, but nobody speaks about the intellectual property - whom will it belong to? If it will be “nobody’s” again, people will begin to leave the country. As, for example, our Nobel winners of the present year have left. In Russia these scientists could not realize their ideas. So as to realize their ideas, they had to leave. This is an awful position for our scientists because if they have new ideas, and they are not their proprietors, it means, they should emigrate, so as to realize them abroad.

If I am a proprietor of the ideas and discoveries, I can receive the credit to put the researches into practice, can involve managers to promote the idea. Thus some ideas perish and the others, on the contrary, become important and carry advantage. Certainly, there is some risk here, but only the mentioned way can really transform our country into a competitive and highly technological state.

It is not clear yet, what will happen to our economy further. That’s because the orientation to the certain investment component which particularly has been not formulated yet, cannot give any results. All the national projects which we planned remained non-realized. Still I do not see abrupt expansion of investment into those branches which were promised to develop – aircraft construction, shipbuilding and so on. And as for the hi-tech branches... The intentions of their developing are great, but it is not clear, how it will be made... It is the first point.

The second point. It’s not clear, what the proclaimed and propagandized enhancement is. We can hear different slogans, is there anything concrete in them? Shall we develop high technologies with our efforts or shall we just follow the western patterns, buy them and introduce them into our national economy? We don’t know that.

Let’s analyze the development of the motorcar industry. Till nowadays we got the western technologies, and we practically became the

“screwdriver” production. We build factories for producing western automobiles, but we do not receive a full technological chain. Let’s recall the situation with “Opel” when we tried to buy the full cycle of technologies. The West refused to give it to us. Now we are trying to buy military ships from France, but we do not develop own shipbuilding as separate branch, which earlier was developing rather quickly and successfully.

Unfortunately, serious shifts towards the innovational development are not observed yet. Russia still remains the “raw state” which provides deliveries of energy carriers to the West. The West defined Russia’s place in the world economy as the economic deliverer of raw materials, so the country continues to keep it. “Gazprom” and oil companies, color and ferrous metallurgy are all our “trumps” for the forthcoming years. There are no any positive shifts in the field of high technologies or in the use of our national economy for our economy’s intensification.

Russia is the country with huge natural and mental potential. It is the unique country in the world. There are countries with high technologies, but not having any natural resources, as, for example, Japan and South Korea. Europe also doesn’t possess natural resources. On the other hand, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula have huge natural resources, but there is very low level of mental potential there. For our country all these things come together. Russia, the USA and Canada are among such countries... And we can develop very intensively, but...

Why we sell round timber to Finland and buy there paper, plywood and various building materials, including battens? The same situation is with oil: we sell oil to Poland, and we carry washing powder from Poland. Why cannot we establish processing? Why metallurgists produce bars, but do not produce rental complex profile? And in the West these bars are melted again, automobiles’ carcasses and then are sold to us in ready automobiles with the exorbitant prices. Why? Do we really agree to have such a situation in our country forever?.. Let’s answer these questions.