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Modern hi-tech cluster to emerge in Siberia

A plant working by means of components supplied from China has been built and put into operation

NOVOSIBIRSK, December 8 (Itar-Tass) — ROSNANO chief Anatoly Chubais has referred to Thursday's coming into operation of a plant for the manufacture of lithium-ion storage batteries in Novosibirsk Region as the start of the establishment of a "modern cluster of new hi-tech plants for the production of accessory materials and components, as well as an engineering center".

"Novosibirsk City and Region on the whole have available everything for that," Chubais emphasized, pointing out that in prospect ROSNANO and Liotech Company intend to bring into being here "a cluster combining production, education and science".

In the opinion of the ROSNANO chief, "The cluster is sure to get support from researchers at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The educational potential of Novosibirsk will be augmented soon through the setting up of a special department at the university here".

Such a cluster will be established stage by stage. "A plant working by means of components supplied from China has been built and put into operation. Next task is to build a cahode plant and bring production of high-capacity storage batteries up to 100-percent localization."

Demand for such storage batteries is continuously mounting in the world. They find a wide application as traction storage batteries for electric transport vehicles, as accumulators of power generated by alternative sources of energy such as solar-cell batteries and windpower generators. Such accumulators are also indispensable for mobile emergency power sources, as well as for sources of an uninterrupted supply of power to critical facilities -- railways, airports, hospitals, and data storage centers.

Chubais said in conclusion that ROSNANO mulls a project to establish such a cluster in Siberia "as a large-scale and strategic one designed to eliminate our country's lagging behind in the production and application of high-capacity storage batteries".