04
www.rian.ru/science Hi-Tech section presented by Russia’s RIA
Hi-Tech
RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES
BOOKMARKS
Novosti News and Information Agency
SECTION SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA http://english.minsvyaz.ru Ministry of IT and Communications, RF
www.nanotech.ru/cn/e/ Nanoindustry initiative
Techno futures:
Yevgeny Kaspersky, who controls 2% of in- Big things
ternational anti-virus software market, was
a face of russian hi-tech for a long time. Now
the Russian government would like to see hun- expected
dreds of people like Kaspersky.
RUSLAN KRIVOBOK_RIA NOVOSTI
from nanotech
MIHAIL FOMICHEV_ITAR-TASS
The Kremlin’s enthusiasm for the country still faces two distinct
nanotechnology makes sense disadvantages.
in the country’s bid to develop First, the three traditional lead-
a modern economy, but a ers in nanotech have estab-
commercial nanotech industry lished centrally funded and or-
is thought to be some way off, ganized nanotech activities,
with investors unlikely to show with former president Bill Clin-
much interest for at least half a ton’s National Nanotechnology
decade. Initiative, launched in the US in
2001, seen as accelerating the
Mobile Skype
TIM GOSLING
global race.
Embedded voice engine, developed by SPIRIT BNE Second, these same countries
DSP, allows mobile phones and even office ex- also have private, commercial-
changes to take advantage of IP telephony and The nanotechnology industry, ly-led industries, although an
save on inter-city and inter-country calls. The tech- one of the stars of President EU report from November 2006
nology is already being used by some vendors. Ex- Vladimir Putin’s address to par- expresses concern that while
perts suggest that if this technology is introduced liament early this year, has been public financing is competitive,
in mobile communications, roaming costs can be pledged some $7 billion in state the level of private funding in Eu-
reduced to zero, in the same way that Skype has funding for its development over rope — around one third of the
obliterated payments for international land-line the next five years. Putin men- total in 2005 — will see nano-
communications. tioned this in the previous year’s technology lag, despite there
speech, too, so obviously this is being around 300 nanotech
important to the Kremlin. companies active in the EU. In
On June 14, it was announced Japan, meanwhile, almost two-
IT revenues will replace petrodollars. Government
that Deputy Prime Minister Ser- thirds of R&D funding is from the
gei Ivanov — thought to be the private sector. The 54 percent
invests $ bilions in a knowledge-based economy
frontrunner to succeed Putin — share of funding that the private
will head the Nanotechnologies sector provided in the US in
Council, on which he will be 2005 alone totalled around 2 bil-
IT-tech
joined by a posse of industrial- lion euros, with nanobiotechnol-
MIHAIL FOMICHEV_ITAR-TASS
ists and oligarchs, few of them ogy and nanodevice applica-
with any obvious link to the sub- tions benefiting most over
ject. The body will provide expert several years.
evaluations on the development Yet it’s not just a funding issue.
of nanotechnology in Russia. At The base on which Russian
June’s St. Petersburg Econom- nanotechnology will build is ex-
ic Forum, Ivanov reiterated the tremely low. Many commenta-
nanotechnology sector’s role in tors are keen to point to the
pushing the Russian economy strength of the country’s techni-
Will Russia turn into a
into the global top-five within the cal educational base, suggest-
Convenient mobile site next 13 years. To that end, the ing this could help accelerate the
Anybody attempting to display a standard internet push makes sense, say ana- evolution of the sector — as in
website on the screen of their mobile phone may lysts. other hi-tech industries — in the
hi-tech nation one day?
get irritated, as the present display quality of clas- Although skeptics dismiss nan- long run.
sic websites on small screens is inadequate. A otechnology either as coldly cal- Vladimir Zaluzhsky of the Scan-
programmer who is instructed to develop a mobile culated (harnessed for weap- dinavian private equity firm Mint
version of a site can also feel frustrated by the ons technology), or wildly Capital comments: “Today we
limitations. The Bemobi Company has now pro- utopian (driven by the desire of see strong Russian telecoms
duced an assembly kit that lets users quickly build oligarchs to enjoy their riches for with international ambitions. We
The Russians now view Russian IT companies will grow are expected to provide match- websites for viewing from any device — desktop eternity), it is generally acknowl- can expect many other domes-
information technology (IT) by an average of 21 percent in ing contributions, while private computers, PDAs, smartphones and conventional edged to be a key to unlock ad- tic industries to follow the same
as a reliable means of the next few years. investors may supply about cellphones. vances that will impact virtually path. Some of these industries
diversifying the national Owen Kemp, Hewlett Pack- 125 billion rubles ($4.9 billion). every facet of the world. Russia did not exist in Soviet times.
economy, which until now has ard’s vice president and gener- IT parks are now being estab- isn’t alone in recognizing the im- They have been re-invented, so
largely been subsidized by al director in Russia, afirms the lished in the Moscow, St. Pe- mense potential for commercial in that respect Russia can learn
mineral exports. The state analysts’ estimates that the tersburg and Nizhny Novgorod applications — let alone the rev- very quickly. Additionally, Rus-
has invested substantial Russian IT market grew by regions, in the Volga republic of olutionary impact sub-molecu- sia has a colossal scientific
financial resources in hi-tech 20 percent in 2006. He said it Tatarstan, in the Kaluga Region lar sciences are likely to have on background, and a huge do-
sectors and wants to see was a record figure compared (central Russia) and in Siberia’s
BORIS DOLGIH_RG
the globe — and the traditional mestic market, which provides
Russia become a leader in the to that of other countries. Novosibirsk and Tyumen re- leaders in the sector (the US, a very good platform for training
global high-tech market Russian market players are even gions. Japan and the EU) are all also and preparing for subsequent
within eight years. more optimistic. Dmitry Lo sh chi- The IT Park in Novosibirsk is one increasing the cash supply. The establishment in international
nin, president of Luxoft, a Russian of the most advanced. “We are EU, for instance, has dedicated markets.”
LEONID KONIK
producer and exporter of soft- past the planning stage and are 3.5 billion euros over the next six However, the number of Rus-
COMNEWS ware, thinks that the market will ready for development,” said years, while the US — world sian research institutions in-
grow by 40 percent annually. Igor Sorokin, director of the park. leader in terms of funding — volved in nanotechnology is not
President Putin approved a de- Milovantsev believes that 2006 He said the project was worth 20 ploughs around $1 billion each only dwarfed by the global lead-
velopment strategy for the na- was a record year in terms of in- billion rubles ($781 million), with year into it. Meanwhile, the sec- ers, but even Bulgaria and Lich-
tional hi-tech business. “Russia vestment in the Russian IT mar- the federal budget and the No- Send us your bills tor has not gone unnoticed by tenstein have more active cen-
has the ability to become one ket, stating: “In 2005, Russian vosibirsk Region’s budget pro- When you are billed for a service, in all likelihood other emerging giants, with the ters.
-
of the world’s IT leaders by and foreign investors chan- viding 1 billion rubles ($39 mil- Russians participated in the process. CBoss is a rest of the so-called BRICs —
2015”, he stated. neled $700 million into Russian lion) each.The remaining major producer of billing systems, and is one of Brazil, India and China — also This comment is provided by
Leonid Reiman, Russia’s IT and IT companies, while in 2006 for- 18 billion rubles are expected to the largest in the world among mobile operators. active.
communications minister, no ted eign investment alone ap- come from a private investor. As many as 1,200 companies globally use CBoss While the new Russian push
that implementing this strategy proached $1 billion.” The IT community has em- products. Besides Europe, the company has also more than matches what is hap- For the full version go to
should propel Russia from its The Russian IT and Communi- braced the idea of IT parks and been selling in Asia and Africa since last year, and pening in the developed world, www.businessneweurope.eu
current 52nd place into the cations Ministry has designed welcomed the government’s is planning to enter the Latin American market in
world’s top 20 IT countries by IT parks as a means of estab- assistance to the IT sector. 2007.
2015, and into the top 10 in terms lishing the infrastructure for in- Owen Kemp believes that the
of public and corporate access novation-based development Russian government’s support Market application focus
to IT products. According to Leo- of the country. for the sector is evident. The es-
nid Reiman’s deputy Dmitry First Deputy Prime Minister Ser- tablishment of IT parks and ven-
of nanotech fi rms in Europe
Milovantsev, Russia’s IT market gei Ivanov estimates that resi- ture funds with state capital
accounted for some $13.7 billion dents of IT parks being estab- makes the Russian hi-tech mar-
in revenue in 2006, compared to lished in seven Russian regions ket more attractive to foreign in-
$10.7 billion the year before. This would produce more than 100 vestors, he believes. Andrei
constitutes a mere 1 percent of billion rubles ($3.9 billion) worth Bogdanov believes that in-
the global IT market, which has of goods by 2011. creased state support for this
been estimated at $915 billion, In 2006, the Russian govern- sector may create an alternative
yet Russia’s IT market has more ment approved a programme to energy exports.
-
than doubled in the past four for establishing IT parks and al-
VLADIMIR VYATKIN_RIA NOVOSTI
years. Andrei Bogdanov, chief located more than 8 billion ru- Leonid Konik is editor-in-chief of
telecommunications analyst bles ($312.5 million) from the the ComNews Publishing Group
with the Troika Dialog invest- federal budget over the follow- and partner of the ComNews
ment company, predicts that ing four years. Local authorities Research company.
Off-shore programming
Large multinational corporations have long known
that Russians make good products, but they can’t
sell them. In recent years Microsoft (Bill Gates,
above), Intel, Siemens, Motorola, Iskratel, Alcatel-
Lucent, Huawei Technologies, Nortel, LG Tech-
nologies, Google, Sun Microsystems, Borland,
Hewlett-Packard (HP), T-Systems and others have
opened software development centers in Russia.
Motorola already has more than 560 employees in
its St. Petersburg center, while the high technolo-
gies centre opened by Sun Microsystems, also
in St Petersburg, has about 300 programmers on
its payroll. Intel employs some 1,100 engineers
and software developers across Russia in Nizhny
Novgorod, Moscow and Novosibirsk and other
cities. In June 2007 T-Systems, a subsidiary of
Tune daily to
Deutsche Telekom, opened a center for developing
and testing software and the number of employees
is expected to reach 400 by 2008.
The Voice of Russia
01.00–05.00 (UTC)
Spreading anti-virus
The Kaspersky Lab is among the world’s top
13775 kHz
10 companies providing software to protect
information from cyberspace attacks, and is fre-
01.00–04.00 (UTC)
quently in the news. Owned by Yevgeny Kasper-
sky (pictured top left), the Moscow-based
9665 kHz
company has regional offices in the UK, France,
Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Japan, China, 02.00–05.00 (UTC)
Korea, Romania and the US. It also has a large
partner network involving more than 500 com-
15595, 9860 kHz
panies globally.
03.00–05.00 (UTC)
9515, 9880,
Find more on Techno Futures at
9435, 5900 kHz
www.rbth.rg.ru/e-paper
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