Penza, 1 June 2012. PenzaNews. An official opening ceremony of Yablochkov Technopark of Innovative Technologies took place in Penza on Friday, June 1. The ceremony was attended by Director of the Department for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development of the Ministry of Economic Development Natalya Larionova, Director of Moscow Non-commercial Partnership “Institutions for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development ” Andrey Lebedev, Governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev and Chairperson of the Regional Government Yuri Krikov.

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The state officials learned about the production capacity and technological characteristics of the Technopark and toured the laboratories used for prototyping, testing, designing digital signal processing devices, circuit simulation and solid modeling, and monitoring energy efficiency of housing and state-funded facilities.

Small and medium-sized innovative companies specializing in information technologies, instrumentation design and materials engineering presented their products during the event.

“The Technopark in Penza is the first large-scale project in the country to support small and medium-sized innovative companies. In my view, before other regions implement similar initiatives they should come to the Penza region and see firsthand how properly and smartly this has been done here,” Natalya Larionova said.

In her words, the Penza Technopark has already become a living organism that exists not only on paper, but also in reality.

“It is great to realize that this building hosts people who understand what they do and why they do it, and that their projects are already successfully implemented,” she stressed.

Governor Vasily Bochkarev noted the importance of creating the Technopark to accomplish strategic tasks in the development of innovations of the Penza region.

“This project will enable gifted and proactive young people to create and promote their hi-tech ideas and apply them in real life. We can already state now that our plan has succeeded and the first pancake does not have any lumps,” the head of the region concluded.