Seventh Session of the SPECA Project Working Group on Knowledge-based Development and International Conference "Practical Steps Towards a Knowledge-based Economy"

Presentations from session 2 of the international conference on Improving broadband connectivity in Central Asia may be downloaded here from the website of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Tuesday 16 June 10:00-17:00

Session 1 was dedicated to the Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan.

The Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan, undertaken this year and organized as a participatory policy advisory service, examines possible policy actions aimed at stimulating innovation activity in the country, enhancing its innovation capacity and improving the efficiency of the national innovation system. The Innovation Performance Reviews of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Armenia have already been carried out and published, and this Review follows a similar approach.

The content of the Review follows an Outline agreed upon with the Government of Tajikistan, with international experts mobilized jointly by the UNECE and the Government of Tajikistan to carry out the substantive work. The final text of the Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan is due to be published as an official UNECE publication. 

The international conference was opened by H.E. Mr. Shavkat Bobozoda, Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan, H.E. Mr. Umed Davlatzod, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan and representatives of UNECE and ESCAP.

10.00 - 10.15: Overview of the UNECE project "Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan

Mr. Ralph Heinrich, Chief of the Innovative Policies Development Section of UNECE (moderator)
Mr. Parviz Dzabborov, Head of the Department of New Technologies, Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan

10.15 - 11:25: Chapters 2 and 3

1. Substantive policy discussion on Chapter 2 “National innovation system and innovation governance” and Chapter 3 “Framework conditions, innovation policies and instruments” of the Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan.

• Presentation of main findings (conclusions and recommendations) by the members of the international team of experts:

Mr. Rumen Dobrinsky, Director for Strategy, European Alliance for Innovation, Belgium, and Mr. Thomas Stahlecker, Senior Researcher and Head of Business Unit “Regions and Clusters”, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany.

• Presentation by an independent international reviewer: Mr. Bart Verspagen, Professor, Director of UN University-MERIT, Director-Dean of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance.

• Plenary discussion

11:50 - 13:00: Chapters 4 and 5

2. Substantive policy discussion on Chapter 4 “Knowledge generation and innovation support institutions", and Chapter 5 “Industry-science linkages and collaboration in the innovation process” of the Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan.

• Presentation of main findings (conclusions and recommendations) by the members of the international team of experts: 

Secretariat on behalf of Mr. Slavo Radosevic, Professor of Industry and Innovation Studies, Director of UCL Centre for Comparative Economics, Deputy Director of School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, United Kingdom, and Ms. Annamaria Inzelt, Director, IKU, Innovation Research Centre, Financial Research Corp, Budapest, Hungary.

• Presentation by an independent international reviewer: Mr. Lars-Gunnar Larsson, VINNVÄXT, Societal Development – Transport, Environment and the Regions Division, VINNOVA – Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems

• Plenary discussion

14:30 - 15:45: Chapters 6 and 7

3. Substantive policy discussion on Chapter 6 “Innovative entrepreneurship” and Chapter 7 “Innovation and international economic integration” of the Innovation Performance Review of Tajikistan

• Presentation of main findings (conclusions and recommendations) by the members of the international team of experts: 

Ms. Anna Kaderabkova, Research Director, Center for Economic Studies, Prague, Czech Republic, and Mr. Ruslan Rakhmatullin, Economic Affairs Officer, UNECE

• Presentation by an independent international reviewer: Ms. Anna Pobol, Associate Professor, Department of Theoretical and Institutional Economy, Belarusian State University

• Plenary discussion

The discussion of the Innovation Performance Review was followed by a presentation by Mr. Oleg Petrov, Open Data Program Coordinator, World Bank on “Open Data as Smart Enabler of Innovation: Key Findings from the Open Data Readiness Assessments in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan”