The meeting was held on instructions given by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the meeting on innovative development of the agro-industrial and fuel-and-energy sectors in Rostov-on-Don on August 17, 2012 

Mr Surkov instructed them to draft technical specifications for the testing centre and to start design work as soon as possible. The approximate cost of this work will be about 500 million roubles. The centre is supposed to be built through public-private partnership. The financial model and principles guiding the centre’s construction and use should be presented by the beginning of November this year.

The Russian government will also consider establishing new testing centres in other industries.

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The meeting was attended by the heads of the Energy Ministry, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System (UES), RusHydro, INTER RAO UES and electric equipment producers.