MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia needs to make a microelectronics leap, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and Chairman of United Russia, said.
Medvedev stressed the need for Russia to fully provide for itself in certain, particularly important, strategic sectors. These include the nuclear industry, a number of defense enterprises, and microelectronics.
"In microelectronics, <…> we're behind the 8-ball. I won't analyze the reasons but I will say this: unfortunately, attempts to change the situation haven't led to any radical changes yet. But we definitely should do this," Medvedev noted, stressing that otherwise, Russia will always be playing catch-up to other countries.
The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council pointed at the attention China is paying to developing the industry, building expensive factories.
"Each such factory costs approximately $15-20 billion, if I am not mistaken. These are huge investments. We don't have to do everything ourselves, but we definitely need to have some of our own experience and cooperate with others. We need to choose the right partners, those who are willing to work with us," Medvedev said adding that chips and microelectronics are used not only in civilian products.