In Moscow, the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel will host a discussion on the development of the IT industry in the Kaliningrad region: «Go West – Kaliningrad - the territory of growth of IT startups.
- What main advantages the Special Economic Zone of the Kaliningrad Region offers for IT entrepreneurs?
- The main thing is the lowest investment threshold necessary to take advantage of the benefits of the SEZ of the Kaliningrad region. As we say, if you are engaged in software development, the field of scientific research in IT or consulting, you need only one million rubles and a good mood to become our resident and in this capacity to receive unprecedented on scale of Russia business conditions. For comparison, for all other industries this figure is from 10 million to 150 million rubles.
- How much does the Kaliningrad region plan to receive from the development of the IT industry?
- In this sphere, as in no other, quantitative and qualitative indicators are important. Successful IT projects with millions of turnover are created by small companies, in which highly skilled and expensive specialists work. Such an employer, becoming a resident of the SEZ, receives substantial benefits when paying insurance premiums: he will have to pay only 7.6% of the salary of his employees to the funds of pension, medical and social insurance instead of the current 30%.
How many new jobs does the Kaliningrad Region plan to receive in connection with the development of the IT industry?
- In the first year of our benefits for IT specialists, perhaps, one should be cautious with forecasts. The demand for IT-specialists is huge, we expect to make it up at the expense of newcomers, and by growing our own personnel: in the region a network of innovative education has been created, encompassing both kindergartens, schools and universities. In general, things started happening!
- Do you plan to develop other sectors of the economy? If so, which ones?
- In the pool of priority there are existing and traditional areas, such as shipbuilding, automotive, transport, agriculture, amber industry. If we talk about the most promising sectors of the Kaliningrad region, we can identify IT and microelectronics, the development of which is provided by the largest cluster of radio electronic industry in Europe - Technopolis GS, media business and film production, fishing and fish processing, tourism and medical tourism.
- In connection with the reduction of the fiscal burden on the IT companies, what effect of the industry development in the region do you expect?
"We are very interested in the development of the IT sector in the region, because it does not "drain"resources from the economy, but at the same time creates a very high added value and high productivity. For us, this is one of those industries on which we concentrate, realizing that we can get ahead.
Source: RBC.