With investors in Russian for the international nanotechnology forum Business RT spoke with Heinz Kundert, President of SEMI Europe about plans to promote technology in Russia.
HK: “I haven’t fully understood the project, so I cannot tell you exactly is in their mind. But what I can tell you is that I have been working with Russian technology for 30 years, and I have seen the history of technology in Russia, and the technology is excellent. So, there is a lot of stuff here. A lot of patents, a lot of brilliant people. The problem is to translate that into brilliant products and applications. To build up an industry. That’s the bottleneck, and I think the Russian government has understood that, and they want to build up a strong industry. So, it’s not technology, it’s not science, forget about that in Russia, it’s about building an industry. You have a wonderful cluster in Russia, this is Zelenograd. Zelenograd has manufacturing of semiconductors, has technology, has SME’s, so small and medium enterprises, has an excellent university, has a lot of institutes. So this is the cluster, for semiconductor manufacturing, is a model. And it takes a very long time. Russia has everything, but no time.”RT: Why hasn’t nanotech captured the public imagination HK: “You cannot see that, and that’s the problem, it’s very difficult to explain that to the consumer, when they buy a product, what is nano – is it good, is it bad? – nano is part of everyday life in all our gadgets, applications, in our car, in a telephone. Wherever you go, nano is part of our life.”RT: What sort of nano products can people see in the shops?HK: “It is coming more and more, and also it is energy saving, reducing the amount of materials used. It’s improving your performance. There is a variety of applications and products.”