MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The Russian economy currently requires about one million IT specialists, the industry is experiencing a shortage of personnel, Andrey Turchak, the secretary of the United Russia party’s general council, said on Monday.

"The struggle between countries for IT specialists is escalating, we must honestly admit that with the start of the special military operation, some of our IT specialists, including young people, went abroad. However, it should be noted that the reverse process is already being recorded," Turchak said at a meeting of the Council for the Development of the Digital Economy under the Federation Council (upper house of parliament).

"The industry continues to experience personnel shortages. The number of our IT specialists last year was estimated at 1.7 million people, experts say that our economy needs at least one million more," he added.

Turchak added that at the state level, extraordinary, breakthrough solutions are needed both for training and for retaining IT personnel. A task has been set for higher education institutions to strongly increase enrollment in IT specialties.

According to a draft decision of the Council, which was obtained by TASS, it is recommended to the Ministry of Education and Science, together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Development to consider the possibility of changing the federal state educational standards of higher education in areas not directly related to mathematical education and information technology, in order to increase the number of graduates in other specialties and areas with "key competencies of the digital economy".

The senators also propose working out options to train specialists in game design, e-sports, the education and entertainment industry, sound design, animation, digital modeling, virtual and augmented reality, and digital marketing. The Council also recommends that the ministries, depending on the needs of a particular region, consider increasing the enrollment targets in areas related to information technology in universities outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as the Moscow and Leningrad regions.