Director of the Institute of IT and Intelligent Systems Mikhail Abramsky comments on new measures to support IT professionals

A special executive order was signed by President of Russia Vladimir Putin on 2 March.

Among other points, IT professionals can now receive conscription deferments until they turn 27 years old. They will also have access to special mortgage programs. In the next three years, IT companies will be exempt from profit taxation and will be eligible for 3 percent interest loans (which is significantly lower than the current standard rate).

Mikhail Abramsky opines that this can help retain staff and hopes that the measures can be expanded to IT educators and researchers.

“Developers are most in demand today. There is also very high demand for system analysts, business analysts, system administrators, and testers,” says he. “Apart from that, the need for data analysts will also grow every year. We are trying to be in pace with the time and expand IT teaching at the Institute.”

He continues, “I think that the interest towards open source will grow significantly in the nearest future. We are waiting for national repositories to be established. Evidently, we will move to Linux-based operating systems, including Russian ones, and relevant open source applications. We plan to stimulate students working in this area.”

The Russian government pays much attention to the companies’ transfer to Russian software. Abramsky notes that the Institute of IT and Intelligent Systems has cooperation projects with local companies in both development and teaching.

 

Source text: Larisa Busil

Translation: Yury Nurmeev