Today we asked an American expert Ellis Rubinstein, president of New York Academy of Sciences, about his expectations concerning the upcomung Yaroslavl forum. Mr. Rubinstein, who is preparing a modernization project for President Medvedev, believes foreign experts have a lot to teach Russia.
Interviewer: What issues do you plan to discuss at the forum?
Rubinstein: I have been asked to participate in sessions on Russia’s efforts to modernize its economy, and so, I think, what I can best bring to those sessions is vision of what leaders of other nations and regions and even mega-cities are doing to compete in the 21st century. As you may have heard, a new Academy of Science commissioned to pull together a report for President Medvedev. It’s called “Yaroslavl 10-15-20” - 10 years to implement, 15 steps to take and 20 pitfalls to avoid and so we are going to be delivering a kind of concept based on the interviews we did with the experts all over the world and overview of literature to give Russia and its leaders some concept as it worth modernizing.
Interviewer: What questions, in your opinion, should be raised at the forum? What are the issues requiring most attention?
Rubinstein: Forum itself covers lots of areas. My personal involvement again is just with modernization. There is a huge list of themes. I’ll just give you some. For example, how can a great nation transform itself from an economy-based largely and naturally resource extraction manufacture and agriculture into a globally competitive knowledge-based economy. Or how can the young people in Russia become excited by challenges in science and technology and commercialization of their ideas. How can they even learn to commercialize their ideas. Or how can synergies are developed among institutions that too often compete or are completely isolated such as the Research Institute, the Universities, the cooperation in the financial sector and couple of more might be. How can Russia attract back a substantial percentage of its best and brightest into Diaspora and how Russia can catalyze and incubate more medium-sized enterprises. And finally I’ll give you one more which will be – how can Russia’s financial factor and its philanthropists drive economic game through science and technology.
Interviewer: What are your expectations concerning this forum?
Rubinstein: I hope that there would be very intense dialogs between Russia’s leaders and government and industry and the international guests like myself and in fact I’m hoping that instead of just being a place to meet that will be a place where we will be able to trigger some new collaborations and so it isn’t just more talk. I’m hoping, in particular, that there could be a long-term change that would be catalyzed by the conversations that happen there and by the new relationships that it develop between people that are there.
Interviewer: What would be the impact of this forum on Russia?
Rubinstein: Russia’s leadership invests resources and time and passion and really building new networks, both local networks and global networks of experts and institution, then the impact could be enormous because basically you have lots of great talents there that need to be unlocked to have great resources, you have a tremendous history of strong education and science and technology. So, what’s missing is really kind of glue that puts it all together and I think there would be a possibility of actually starting to build this kind of a network that drives change in Russia and could make Yaroslavl an event that will always be remembered.
Interviewer: Will this forum encourage deeper understanding of problems that Russia is facing now?
Rubinstein: The people, that are described and listed as being speakers, they are all there and If we really have time to talk to each other, learn from each other and build new relationships with each other, then I definitely will assume that it will create deeper understanding of the challenges and also the opportunities that Russia faces.
Mr. Rubinstein says that he expects not only an experience exchange, but also building new ties, creating collaboration at the forum. He praises Russia for her outstanding talents and is looking forward to its modernization.
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