KAZAN, February 4. /TASS/. The IBM corporation set up a finance process outsourcing center in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday. The center, being the country’s first one, will render business accounting services to companies under Russian legislation.

The center uses IBM programming solutions and is focused on industry, according to Richard Newland, head of IBM European Service Centers.

At present, 70 employees are working in Kazan, as further plans include increasing the staff number to 450 employees, as reported by Newland. "We render finance management services, we provide service on purchasing and logistic chain organizing," he added.

The IBM service center in Russia will cover the entire country, Yulia Tarasova, head of IBM service center in Kazan, said to TASS. "We are principally aimed at transnational companies planning to work in Russia, but we will also render services to Russian enterprises," she added.

Several major international food and commodities producers are already customers of the Kazan center, according to Tarasova.

IBM, an American company based in Armonk, New York, tracing its history back to 1911, is one of World’s biggest producers and suppliers of hardware and software as well as IT-service and consulting services. IBM already has a customer support and an IT-products sales center in Kazan.