Russia adopts nanotechnology development programme

Moscow, July 12 (UNI) The Russian government has approved a programme for the development of nanotechnology industry infrastructure up to 2010, part of President Vladimir Putin's effort to reduce the country's economic dependency on oil and gas.

'The ultimate goal of the programme was the coming to the market with nanotechnology products,' Russian Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko said presenting a report on the development of nanotechnology in the country.

Last week, the Russian parliament passed a bill to set up the Nanotechnology Corporation, Gosrosnanotekh.

'We should relate all financial instruments and properly build the whole infrastructure of the nanoindustry,' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Mr Fursenko as saying.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is in charge of high-technology development, said earlier the government would allocate 7.7 billion dollars to develop nanotechnology up to 2015.

The government has already set up a state council for nanotechnology, to be chaired by Mr Ivanov.

President Putin highlighted the high-tech industries in his state of the nation address in April, saying nanotechnology research, which promises advances in medicine, space research, telecommunications, and weapons production, should receive priority funding.

"The government should provide the necessary funding to arrange this work in terms of technical equipment, staff and organisational support," he said.

'The most acute problem at the present is standardisation and metrology of nanotechnology,' Mr Ivanov said.

Nanotechnology is the science of building devices from individual atoms and molecules, which has applications in industries such as consumer electronics, automobiles, health care and environmental management.

UNI