Sergei Ivanov's speech:
Good afternoon, colleagues!
Today we hold another meeting of the Prime Minister's Council of General and Chief Designers, Leading Scientists and Professionals from high-tech sectors of the economy.
Before moving on to the agenda, I would like to inform members of the Council that some changes in the Council's name and membership have been proposed, and they have been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has charged me with conducting the Council's subsequent meetings.
In addition, I would like to introduce you to the Council's new executive secretary, Alexander Khlunov, the director of the newly-created Department of Science, High Technologies and Education of the Government of the Russian Federation. He is present at this meeting. This department will also draft, organise and supervise the decisions made by our Council.
Moving on. Considering that the Council's primary goals include participating in the comprehensive examination of large scientific and technical investment programmes, other programmes, projects and proposals submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation, it has been decided to consider one issue at this Council meeting: the comprehensive development of Russia's biomedical scientific and technical potential under the implementation of the Human Proteome priority project.
We have provided three speakers on this issue: Academician Anatoly Grigoriev, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Academician Alexander Archakov, director of the Orekhovich Research Institute of Biomedical Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, and Viktor Bykov, director general of the nanotech company NT-MDT. But before we move on to discuss the item on the agenda, I would like to point out the following.
Our Council's work should not duplicate work of the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovations, which the Prime Minister leads. It should not under any circumstances duplicate the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation or any other consultative and coordinating organisation, a sizable number of which has appeared recently.
Based on our Council's goals, the primary issues for consideration at its meetings should be specific major projects that can really affect the development of various industries, the social sphere and finally the economy as a whole, through its diversification, innovation and modernisation.
In this sense, I see the overall objective of today's meeting as focusing the Council's energies on the development of research in the field of proteomics as stimulating demand in the market for socially significant products, technologies, services, contributing to the innovative modernisation of the real sector of economy and increasing its competitiveness.
We should consider the Human Proteome project as having, on the one hand, an obvious interdisciplinary and inter-branch character, and, on the other hand, a clearly expressed social orientation.
Specialists and experts say that implementing this project will have a considerable long-term impact on health services and public health, agriculture, the food industry and development of Russian analytical instrument technology.
Remember that this project involves the "Living Systems" priority area and the crucial "Genome and Proteome technologies in the manufacture of medical products." In general, developments in the field of living systems are being actively applied today in the pharmaceutical industry, public health services, veterinary science and in the maintenance of bio-safety. Thus the majority of methods applied are the most advanced and are on a par with international standards.
I will note that technological development in this sector has already enabled us to improve the efficiency of medical treatment: introducing safer drugs with reduced side effects and establishing new, faster and more effective diagnostic systems. At the same time, cellular, post-genome and genome information technology, biotechnology and new materials are actively being used to develop new medical products and methods for the treatment of diseases with the widest practical use. This has already gone some way in promoting the expansion of the sales markets for domestic production and is stepping up the process of import replacement, which is now one of the key goals in the pharmaceutical industry.
On the other hand, it has also led to practical results clear to everyone. Average life expectancy in Russia has begun to increase: in 2007, it was 67.5 years, and in 2005, still only five years ago, it was 65.3 years. This is substantial growth in two years.
In addition, this field of endeavour also boosts the country's defence potential. We should bear this in mind, since some of the single and dual-use pharmaceutical substances could protect the public in case of, God forbid, the use of weapons of mass destruction, and also against epidemiologically infectious diseases and even against hypothetically possible bioterrorist attacks; in other words, the issue of security is also touched upon here.
At the same time, I would like to draw your attention to what is, in my opinion, one very important detail. According to an analysis of domestic spending on scientific research and development in all priority fields of science, technology and equipment, the Russian Federation's spending on living systems only accounts for 4.5 % of all priority research. In developed countries as you know, this figure is considerably higher; in some states, it is upwards of 50%. Do the maths yourself, and as they say, the result is obvious. But it is true that we can see that there is now a trend in Russia towards increasing this figure, but that the growth rates are obviously not sufficient.
That is all I wanted to say about today's agenda.