Finland gives Russia USD 1 million to develop IT market

Finland has allocated USD 1 million for a project to develop the Russian IT market. The decision to award the money was announced yesterday at a press conference during the 3rd international software developers forum in St. Petersburg by Jari Angesleva, a representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Angesleva said that the project to develop Russia's IT market would be implemented by the IFC and the Finnish Export Agency (FINPRO) over the next 2 years. The Finnish foreign and trade ministries will provide financial support. FINPRO is providing support via the Finnish Foreign Trade Association. The project aims to develop Russian software exports and strengthen Russian-Finnish cooperation in software development. The project will seek to introduce joint quality control standards, consultation and learning processes in software development, a portal for information exchange between partner companies, consultations on project management issues, monitoring of business processes and product certification.

'There are already 12 Finnish companies participating in the project, and the maximum number of Finnish companies will be 15. It is planned that 30-50 Russian companies, who will have to go through a selection process, will take part in the project. The companies will have to pay an entry fee of 10-15% of the total cost of each event,' said Angesleva.