Vladimir Nikitaev, Deputy-director of the department for economic analysis and long-term planning of the Ministry of industry end energy of the Russian Federation, COST-A22 Final Conference, Athens

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! 

I am a deputy head of department in the Ministry of industry and energy of the Russian Federation.

On the first picture yon can read the mission and strategic objectives of Ministry of industry and energy of the Russian Federation, which determine our industrial policy.

The Russian industrial policy can be understood as interaction of different types of political actors (government, companies, non-governmental organizations). This interaction covers areas, methods and means of development of industry-energy sector of Russian economy.

We consider Russian industry-energy foresight (RIEF) as a new (for us) instrument and process of Industrial policy.

The Ministry started working on Russian industry-energy foresight (RIEF) in December 2006.

We run it to make Russia’s economy more competitive, to improve quality of life for the country’s population, to ensure links with the development strategies, orientation towards state-private partnership and a stake in technological innovations.

The general framework for work on the RIEF was laid down at a brainstorming and project-analysis session in February this year, entitled “Russia 2050”. Top officials from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy and representatives of Russian companies took part in this work.

The conference produced a general “vision of the future” for the global and Russian industry and energy sectors and finance and education spheres.

The first three areas chosen as primary areas for the RIEF are of the highest importance for the Russian economy.  This choice includes metallurgy, chemicals and energy sector. And it takes into account the fact that these industries are strongly interdependent.

All three of these RIEF areas have both common and specific aspects.

Their general aspect is that these industries have common goals.

Once also include certain common difficulties in organizing and implementing the RIEF.

In particular, the situation regarding relations between the state, science and business is a complicated one.

Therefore, one the main aims of the RIEF is to establish a unified communication space between the government, science and business, based on modern network technologies.

An important aspect of the implementation and spreading of the RIEF is, we believe, implementing a specific project deriving from the Foresight results, with reference to a particular company or region of Russia.

The RIEF also includes the following common components:

• SWOT-analysis, conducted as part of the development strategy;
• Expert panels as systematically functioning (scoping, scenario generation, technology road mapping) Foresight’s and strategies development instrument;
• Delphi analysis of industry and energy by the Experts’ Club
• Recommendations for the government and business.

The non-profit organization “The Industry and Energy Experts Club” plays a key role in the RIEF. Specially designed web-infrastructure also plays a significant role in the Foresight implementation. The Experts Club holds regular sessions of relevant sections.

One of the key distinguishing features of the RIEF’s areas and themes is focusing.

For the metallurgy sector, the focus is purely on technology, for the chemicals sector, it is on technology and economics, and for the “Energy-efficient Society” sector it is primarily on socio-economic aspects.

These differences come primarily from the different situations regarding the strategies and other industrial policy measures in these sectors.

The Russian government is set to approve a paper entitled “The development strategy for the metallurgy industry of the Russian Federation until 2015”.

Therefore, it is the task of the RIEF to facilitate the implementation of this strategy at regional and corporate levels and to support the research touching upon possible prolongation of this strategy up to 2030 with regard to technological innovation.

Experts have compiled a list of technologies essential to production competitiveness in the metallurgy sector.

The technologies were evaluated according to two general categories of criteria: their socio-economic effect and the implementation potential of new technologies.

“The development strategy for the chemical and petrochemical industry of the Russian Federation until 2015” is currently at the development stage, and awaiting approval from all stakeholders.

The priorities in this document are as following:

• choosing the main areas to focus efforts on,
• generating a sufficiently full set of scenarios,
• and identifying technologies and other parameters or events that are critical to the implementation of any scenario.

The first stage will feature a survey of a wide range of experts not only from the chemicals sector itself but also from industries that use its products.

A particular feature of the “Energy-Efficient Society 2030” Foresight is that this is a comparatively new theme for Russia – the country that has never suffered from a lack of energy resources.

The “Energy Strategy for the Russian Federation until 2020”  has been being implemented since 2003, but the situation in the energy sector has changed.

The issue of global energy security plays a big role both in updating the Energy Strategy and organizing the RIEF.

That’s why we have taken into account its international significance and prospects at the beginning of the Energy Foresight work. 

The creation of an extensive communication network will be one of the most significant outcomes of the RIEF’s first stage.

We hope that both Russian and foreign experts will take part in the RIEF activities.

Thank you for your attention!