Russian regional heads will be invited to deliberate over the development of Russia's innovation sector and the creation of the Skolkovo high-tech research park near Moscow at the 2010 St. Petersburg Trade Forum, a presidential aide said on Friday.
Arkady Dvorkovich told the Tomsk International Modernization Forum that the Skolkovo research and development project, which has been described as a Russian version of Silicon Valley, and other invention projects will be discussed at the Economic Forum on June 17-19.
Eight Russian regional chiefs signed on Friday in Tomsk a chit on the creation of a regional association for economic innovation.
The document was signed by the heads of the Republics of Tatarstan and Mordovia, and the regions of Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kaluga, Perm and Krasnoyarsk.
Officials from the Russian hi-tech command corporation Rosnano and the Academy of National Economy also signed the agreement.
The governors expressed concern that Moscow had never consulted the regional authorities over the Skolkovo design.














