YAKUTSK, November 18. /TASS/. Technopark Yakutia residents annually provide almost 1.5 billion rubles’ worth of produce, Head of Yakutia Aysen Nikolayev said at a meeting on Thursday. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD) Yury Trutnev is on a working visit to the region.
"Technopark Yakutia was our first development institution, which in many ways played a key role in the innovative development of the region. In 2012, the number of residents was only 12. Today we already have 167 innovative companies produce goods worth some 1.5 billion rubles annually. This year alone, 334 new jobs were created, many graduates of the technopark became residents of the territory of advanced development ["Yakutia"], which is operating in the Yakutsk region," said Nikolayev.
He also commended the work of a high-tech park called the IT Park opened in Yakutia in 2018, which is the first of its kind in the Far East. The IT Park provides the necessary infrastructure for IT companies to further develop and enter foreign markets. The technopark's press service told TASS that in the first half of 2021 companies attracted 60 million rubles in investments, in just six months the total revenue of technopark and IT-park residents amounted to 729 million rubles, which is almost twice as much as in the same period last year.
In addition, IT centers are being created in the region. "In order to create jobs in IT, we are already creating IT centers in the region. Today, out of the 17 that we plan [to open] by 2024, 11 have already been created. By the end of the year, we will open four more," added the head of the region. He noted that such centers are equipped with small co-working areas with access to fast and free internet along with equipment and computers, as well as a small assembly hall for educational purposes. Children and young people can study in the centers in the day, while evenings offer courses for adults seeking to retrain to change their careers. There are also 50 private IT-schools in the region, which teach about 4 thousand children.
Technopark Yakutia, created in 2011, is Skolkovo Fund’s regional operator and is among the ten best technoparks in Russia. This year it will be 10 years old. The infrastructural complex of the technopark includes a biotech laboratory, a regional center of engineering, the park of high technologies "IT-Park" and the technopark branch in the city of Neryungri.
The growth in the number of people employed in the sector
Deputy Prime Minister said that the enterprises opened in Yakutia in the high-tech sector have created 2 thousand jobs in three years, resulting in a 2.5-fold increase in the number of people employed in this area in the region.
"Yakutia is actually a leader in the Far Eastern Federal District in terms of development in the high-tech sector. We have visited a number of companies today. I would like to say that today more than 3,500 people work in the high-tech sector in Yakutia. Three years ago this figure was only 1,500 people. We have talked with the head of the republic, Aysen Sergeyevich said that the task is to reach 10 thousand people by 2024, "Trutnev said, opening a meeting on the innovation ecosystem development in the republic.
Deputy Prime Minister stressed that high-tech development is a very important task for Russia, so Yakutia should be supported at the federal level as one of the most successful regions in this direction.