By Khalida Sarwari
Cisco Systems Inc. announced a $1 billion investment in Russia’s budding innovation and technology sector during a visit from President Dmitry Medvedev today.
Medvedev was touring Silicon Valley to explore ways to boost his country’s economy and technological production when he received a demonstration of Cisco’s video conferencing technology and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with CEO John Chambers.
“It’s amazing,” Medvedev remarked to his staff and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the demonstration.
Dressed in jeans and a blazer, Medvedev smiled broadly as he recorded video footage of Chambers and Jim Grubb, Cisco’s chief demonstration officer.
Following the demonstration, Chambers and Viktor Vekselberg, president of Russian conglomerate Renova Group, signed a memorandum of understanding agreement outlining a $1 billion initiative to develop entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation in Russia.
The initiative aims to transform the town of Skolkovo into a technology and innovation hub.
“We will try to never let you down,” Chambers told Medvedev.
During the first phase of the initiative, Cisco plans to invest $100 million in Russia’s innovation economy and increase the number of Cisco networking academies to 300 across the country, the company said today.
Cisco is also seeking to establish a second global headquarters for its Emerging Technologies Group in Skolkovo.
The company intends to build a collaborative model with businesses and venture capital and technology companies in Russia focused on developing projects, including smart grid, financial services, service provider models, financing, broadband implementation and social networking.
It will give $175,000 in prize money to Russian entrepreneurial teams that identify ideas and participate in Cisco start-ups with the potential to become Cisco’s next billion-dollar businesses.
Medvedev was also scheduled to give a speech at Stanford University this afternoon and conduct a question-and-answer session with the audience. He arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday.
After his visit to the Bay Area, Medvedev is traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Obama to discuss trade, investment and innovation.
He is also scheduled to go to Canada after his visit with Obama to take part in the G-8 and G-20 meetings.