President Putin: It’s Time to Create a Domestic Microelectronic Industry in Russia
Russian processors and microchips need to push out foreign products from the domestic market. This task was put forth by Vladimir Putin today. The President held a meeting on developing domestic microelectronics. In recent years the industry has grown three and a half times, but that's not enough. In the near future, consumers will be ready to spend billions of rubles (worth billions of dollars) on electronic components. And domestic companies, not foreign, should earn this money.
Dmitry Petrov reporting.
The Zelenograd Innovation and Technology Center, ZITC is the domestic equivalent of Silicon Valley. It performs almost every step of production, from developing new microelectronic devices to their marketing. Photomasks, the core of the technology, are manufactured here.
This particular one has 16 layers from which circuitry schemes will be made. And this one will become a sensor for measuring blood pressure. Using this device template, images are transferred to the silicon wafer, and then cut into the microchips.
15 sensor types for a variety of different devices for different industries are developed here, from biomedicine to the car industry. And by the way, ZITC is the only producer of these photomasks in Russia. Maybe that's why the share of domestic microelectronics is not more than 12-15%. There's not enough production capacity.
Anatoly Kovalev, General Director: "As always there's a competition for product quality and its pricing"/
And even cardio pumps like these that tens of thousands of Russians are in desperate need of are for now made only in single copies.
In 2015 the President ordered to consolidate government orders for microelectronics to be produced by Russian companies. Today, in the presence of economic ministers, and leaders of the largest of tech companies, Putin is going over the intermediate results.
President Putin: "Domestic development and mass production of microelectronics is an investment into our technological and technical independence. The size of the Russian market of civilian microelectronics is very impressive, by the most conservative estimates it is about 120 billion rubles ($2.1 billion). And according to experts, it will grow extensively over the next decade".
In the past 5 years, almost 100 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) have been allocated to the development of the electronics industry, which has allowed increased production of domestic electronics by three and a half times, but it's still not enough, the President makes clear.
President Putin: "It's clear that without government support and orders from state-owned companies, it will be difficult to ensure stable enterprise operations in the initial stages of this industry. So it's important to actively develop mechanisms that will help maximize production capacity. International connections will be important, I'm talking about cooperation with foreign partners, which will reduce costs and time when launching production".
A complex long-term strategy is also necessary for developing existing products, creating new ones, and a more active introduction of Russian products in both domestic and international markets.
Dmitry Petrov, Irina Kharlamova, Oleg Makarov, and Andrei Verechshagin. Vesti.