The Skolkovo Foundation, the organization that runs Russia's equivalent of Silicon Valley in California, will open its first office in China, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The office will be a research center to be located in Beijing. The foundation operates Russia's Skolkovo Innovation Center, a scientific and technological center for the development and commercialization of advanced technologies somewhat similar to the iconic Silicon Valley.

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It's a non-profit organization founded in 2010 and located in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo. The special law creating the foundation was signed by Medvedev. The foundation's aim is to create a new science and technology development center for the benefit of Russian technology entrepreneurs.

The strategic goal of the Skolkovo Innovation Center is to concentrate international intellectual capital to stimulate the development of breakthrough projects and technologies. There are five clusters in the Skolkovo project: information technology, biomedical, energy efficiency, nuclear and space technologies.

Within the innovation ecosystem at Skolkovo, researchers, engineers and businessmen work to create successful and competitive world-class projects. The ecosystem consists of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SkolTech) established in partnership with MIT; private seed and venture capital firms; corporate research and development centers; business incubators and start-up companies.

The center also has residential spaces and a social infrastructure. It's basically a small city with over 30,000 residents and employees. Over 1,400 companies from 52 regions of Russia have received the status of Skolkovo resident.

"The project geography is not limited to Russia only," said Medvedev. "The decision was made to open the Foundation's Representative Office in the People's Republic of China, which is definitely important for us."

Medvedev said the foundation has created over 18,000 high technology jobs and has generated revenues of $1.3 billion.

Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, head of the Skolkovo Foundation, said the center will contribute over $6 6 billion to the Russian GDP by 2020. That contribution is expected to increase to $43 billion by 2030.

TagsSkolkovo Foundation, Russia, china, Skolkovo Innovation Center, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev