The meeting on the improvement of innovation development tools in the 
regions was held under the leadership of Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin in Tomsk at the site of technology development special economic zone (“Tomsk”) on March 14th, 2011. The experts discussed the results of existing innovation infrastructure, problems and prospects of special economic zones, technology parks and science cities in Russia.
The meeting was attended by Vice Prime Minister Dmitriy Kozak, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko, Minister of Communications of the Russian Federation Igor Shchegolev, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Siberian Federal District Viktor Tolokonsky, Governor of the Tomsk Region Viktor Kress, President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, as well as representatives of federal ministries and agencies, governors of a number of the regions, heads of development institutes and state corporations.
Vladimir Putin, opening the meeting, said as follows: “A turn towards innovation is impossible at the sole expense of the federal government, separate projects and programs”. According to Prime Minister of Russia, today it is obviously that such regional projects generate successful economic modernization and expanded business operations through the cost-effective use of knowledge-based resources. “Regions and municipal entities must become key players in the process of innovation development”, - he said.
“At present 24 special economic zones and 13 science cities currently operate all over Russia. State-of-the-art technology parks have been developed in 12 regions. The state has already invested nearly 28.3 billion roubles in the infrastructure of such innovation zones – namely, in roads, production facilities, and laboratories. In 2011, the federal budget will allocate over 17.5 billion roubles towards all special zones, technology parks, and science cities.
About 530 resident companies, including foreign companies, are currently registered and operate in special innovation development zones and technology parks. The total volume of stated investment in special innovation development zones stands at about 170 billion roubles, while overall investment in special zones is 300 billion roubles”, - he reported.
Also, Vladimir Putin added that having considered the importance of the federal program to establish state-of-the-art technology parks, they have decided to extend its duration to 2014. Prime Minister of the Russian Federation suggested “considering the possibility to provide the small companies with the status of special economic zone resident under the simplified procedure”.
The Head of Government of Russia reminded that the most innovative regions have established the Association of Innovation Regions, under which they give the benefit of experience and share the experience. «In my opinion, their activities might have been the base to support it”, - he said.
Delivering the report at the meeting, Minister of Communications of the Russian Federation Igor Shchegolev noted that under the federal program there have already been established technology parks in Tyumen, two technology parks in the Republic of Tatarstan (“IT Park” and Technopolis “Himgrad”), in Novosibirsk and the Kemerovo Region. Completion of Mordovia technology park construction is scheduled by the summer. The construction of already launched projects in St. Peterburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Kaluga and Kemerovo regions are continued at the new stage. “These regions’ technological capabilities make it possible to succeed in performance of our program in terms of complete launch of these technology parks”, - he reported.
In addition, at the meeting General Director of Innovative Technopark “Idea” Sergey Yushko made a report on the results of Technopark activity and its development prospects.