Russia's high-tech research Skolkovo project should link innovation centers instead of competing with them, a presidential aide said on Friday.
In February 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was planning to establish a modern powerful center for research and development, similar to the U.S. Silicon Valley.
The high-tech research and production hub is being built from scratch in the Moscow Region town of Skolkovo.
"Skolkovo will be able to become some kind of "umbrella", connecting all the innovation centers of the country as well as different companies," Arkady Dvorkovich said during an Innovation forum in the southwest Siberian city of Tomsk.
Dvorkovich added that Russia will also focus on developing other projects, such as the Tomsk research and development center.
"Tomsk needs our assistance and we will offer it," he said.
Tomsk is the host city for the annual International Innovation Forum, which gathers heads of federal bodies, top managers of Russian and foreign companies.
In 2010 the forum is being held under the theme: "Innovational leadership of the regions: competition for the future". The event, which is being attended by more than 1,300 people, ends today [May 21].
TOMSK, May 21 (RIA Novosti)
