According to a paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers entitled, "Convergence, Catch up and Overtaking: How the balance of world economic power is shifting", the next decade will see the world’s largest emerging economies catch up with and even surpass the established leading economies in terms of GDP. PwC projections indicate that from 2020 on, the combined GDP of emerging E7 economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey) will overtake the G7’s combined GDP. Analysts predict that Russia will move up the GDP rankings over the next two decades and could move into sixth place - ahead of Germany - before 2030. While PwC analysts established a link between Russia’s growth and its energy resources, domestic economists also point to growth of the IT and high-end technology sectors as influential factors.

Microsoft Technology Centre has begun its work in Moscow. The Centre is designed to model and demonstrate IT solutions developed by the corporation's partners. Total investment in the centre has already reached 300m roubles (nearly 7 mln euro), and will pass 500m in the next three years.

The Moscow technology centre aims to set up industrial installations - a chance for various sectors to ‘test-drive' Microsoft technologies, and also for conducting briefings and demonstrations at corporation management level for partners and clients.

In contrast to Microsoft's development centres, where products are created by the corporation itself, in Microsoft's technology centres, IT solutions for clients are realised and tested with the participation of Microsoft's partners. Prepared solution models are then shown to clients in a special showroom. The Moscow showroom the largest of its kind in Europe and Asia.

Russia's Ministry for Communications has confirmed the institution of a new professional holiday on September 13th to promote the work of the country's programming industry.

Programmer's Day has been unofficially celebrated on this date, the 256th day of the year, since the early 1990s, but this is thought to be the first time the event has been formally recognised. (256 was originally chosen as it relates to the number of values representable in a byte of data.) The move comes at a time when the role of programming is growing in importance in Russia, with the innovation industry expected to increase its contribution to the economy in the next decade as the country looks to scale back its reliance on natural resources.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week conducted the first session of Russia’s Commission for Modernisation and Technological Development of the Economy at the office of the renowned anti-virus software developer Kaspersky Lab in Moscow.

“The commission will be run with the participation of government, citizens, specialist associations and, I hope, the Russian business community,” Mr. Medvedev said. The President pointed to five priority areas under the commission’s remit “where signs of competitive ability are very much alive,” and which, in his opinion, must be developed to achieve valuable technological breakthroughs. Alongside advances in energy efficiency, nuclear technology, space and communications technology, and medical technology, he emphasised the strategic role information technology has to play, particularly software development and computer production. The IT services outsourcing industry, worth nearly $2.5bn in 2008, is today one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Russian IT market, and is likely to benefit from this government initiative and contribute to its success.

After considerable changes in the Russian government after the Presidential elections, the Ministry of IT and Communications was modified to get a new name and a new head. Igor Shegolev was appointed to manage the government body, which now bears the name of Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Communications.

Although the Russian IT market reacted negatively to the extraction of the “IT” part from the Ministry’s name, the good news are new deputies to Mr. Shegolev, who possess considerable experience and vast knowledge of telecom and IT industries in Russia.

Among them is Alexey Soldatov, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Internet development in Russia back in 90s. Until his appointment to the Ministry Mr. Soldatov held the position of R&D Director at Kurchatov R&D Institute in Moscow.

The Russian IT market players expect the new team of the Ministry to continue the dialogue with the business community.

Software right violation in Russia reduced greatly, says the new report of Business Software Alliance, the global organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world.

BSA presented its annual report on the levels of software piracy in the world. The research found that Russia led the way with a one-year drop of seven points to 73%, and a five-year drop of 14 points. Russia’s piracy rate is decreasing at a fast pace as a result of legalization programs, government engagement and enforcement, user education, and an improved economy.

Of the 108 countries included in the study, PC software piracy dropped in sixty-seven countries and rose in only eight. Among nations studied, Russia’s piracy rate dropped a remarkable seven percentage points to 73% from 2006 to 2007. This reduction is the result of legalization programs by IT vendors, enforcement and education by the Russian government, and, an overall improvement in the country’s economy that helped drive a 22% surge in personal disposable income in 2007.

“Russia had a phenomenal year, with the piracy rate dropping seven points in 2007. Ongoing legalization programs on the part of vendors and the government had an impact and also lowered piracy in the installed base. In addition, Russian police authorities increased the criminal enforcement against resellers and commercial users of illegal software while some of the distribution networks that sold pirated software have switched to legitimate software distribution. Rapid economic growth and the rise in disposable income are prompting consumers to re-evaluate the trade off between the risk of using pirated software and the cost of legitimate software. Were it not for an increase in software deployments to the installed base of older PCs compared to last year, the Russia rate might have been even lower. The legitimate PC software market grew more than 100% in 2007.”

From “Global Piracy Study 2007” by Business Software Alliance

In March the international rating agency Standard & Poor's revised Russia's rating outlook to Positive (A-) due to the continuous growth. The upgrade reflects the agency's expectations of the future progress of Russia, forecasted for the budget and external reserves of the country, which have recently revealed rapid growth.

Russia's GDP grew by 8,1% in 2007 according to the estimates from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Last year has also seen the surge in investments which soared by 21% in comparison to 2006. The increase in capital flows and the growing purchasing power are among other distinctive trends in the Russian economy.

St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko rounded off the summer with signing a memorandum of cooperation with Oracle Corporation.

This happened only a month after she made an agreement with the management of Microsoft Russian office. Microsoft agreed to provide the city authorities with software and hardware necessary for the government projects and to take part in the professional trainings in information technologies.

The agreement on Intentions with Oracle aims at strengthening the existing partnership between the City of St.Petersburg and Oracle Corporation and at exploring information technology e-government projects. In signing the agreement, the parties expressed mutual interest in considering co-operation in the design and implementation of a series of new city information systems based on leading-edge technologies, and which will integrate with the existing St. Petersburg IT systems to provide government services to citizens and to businesses.

By partnering with two IT giants, the government of St.Petersburg has proved its interest towards the making information technology an inherent part of the city life. The city authorities became very attentive to the needs of the local IT community and have been looking for proving additional tax incentives for the IT market players. Only this year, their efforts brought two MNCs’ technology centers to St.Petersburg - Hewlett-Packard and EMC. Oracle announced the plan to open a new office in the city, too.

Regional government of St. Petersburg is making plans to outrun other Russian regions on the way of supporting the innovation in the high technology area. And the recent seminar at the Committee of the Economic Development proved this trend to be a serious intention.

The Committee, chaired by the vice-governor Mikhail Oseevsky, presented the updated policy on the development of innovation in the high-tech branch in the city. The meeting’s discussion brought together more than 60 representatives of technology enterprises and government officials.

Discussion was focused on preparing the roadmap for further development of the St. Petersburg high tech sector that is estimated to be the most advanced in the country. Concentrating 20% of the 300’000 Russian IT professionals and accounting for the 10% of the overall science potential of the country, the city is already a recognized technology hub.

The five million city of St. Petersburg accounts forthe major share of the human capital in the country: 8% of Russian students and 15% of graduates and post-graduates in Russia. This makes us believe that with the sensible government support the innovations will flourish in the city.

 

Today, when the fast paced growth of the Russian market attracts visitors from abroad, the question of entry to Russia should be addressed and resolved properly. Dealing with authorities is surely not the most pleasant experience, especially if you are doing it for the first time. But there is good news, nothing too complicated, says the article titled Russian Visa Demystified. Part I. “INTRO TO RUSSIAN VISA”.

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