A meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Small Business Development Coordinating Committee took place in Yekaterinburg on June 13, 2007. In the course of their discussion, the attendees came to a conclusion that the regional small businesses’ scientific potential was being underused, and companies kept being hindered in terms of further innovational development despite all the supportive measures. The meeting participants also commented on the fact that Sverdlovsk Region was not doing very well as far as innovations were concerned; those amounted to less than 6% of all the industrial produce in the region, with science-intensive produce only coming to 1.5% of gross regional product.

Imperfect laws and lack of financial support as well as absence of coordination (that is, very weak ties between scientific bodies and industrial enterprises and little information about new technologies) were identified as the main reasons for Sverdlovsk Region’s falling behind with innovational activity.