The Russian information technologies market will increase

MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti)
The Russian information technologies market will increase by 22 to 23 percent next year, prophesies Information Technologies and Communication Minister Leonid Reiman. He was presenting a concept for the IT market development at today's cabinet sitting.
According to him, software exports will increase by 80 percent. The export-domestic consumption ratio on Russia's IT market is approximately one to ten, or export is ten times less than the domestic market.
In order to attain a 40 billion-dollar size of the IT market, as provided for in the sectoral development concept, it has to increase annually by 30 percent, Reiman said.
If the development measures are not ensured as the concept intends, the annual growth will be around 15 percent, he said.
The minister noted that the development of the IT domestic market necessitates encouragement of demand and elimination of the main impediments which hold back supply on the domestic market, which in turn intends changes to be made in the current legislation.
Another important measure to prompt the development of the Russian IT market is, to Reiman, the adaptation of customs regulation towards a simpler customs clearance. Specifically, he thinks, a switchover must be ensured to a declared scheme of export of IT products and services. Likewise, the procedure of temporary import of innovative equipment, technologies and pilot samples is to be simplified.
Leonid Remain also spoke up for fixing a clear-cut way to prove facts of software exports. This will let sectoral companies develop production in Russia without fear of VAT exactions. "In export, the value-added tax should be returned but, to this day there is no integrated way to prove facts of IT services export. This impairs the competitiveness of sectoral companies on the world market", he noted.
Reiman also thinks expedient lowering the tax load on enterprises in the IT sector.
He proposes considering the possibility of cutting the tax load on the labour remuneration fund, for instance, in case of sectoral enterprises being found in special economic zones. Leonid Reiman supported Economic Development and Trade Deputy Minister Andrei Sharonov in the earliest submitting of a law on special economic zones to the cabinet.
Leonid Reiman noted that two thirds of the sectoral companies' expenses are currently going on labour remuneration.
"The existing system of taxation forces investors to move production to other countries", Reman lamented.
The Information Technologies Minister also spoke up for working out mechanisms of venture financing to ensure the accessibility of financial resources in the sector.
In his opinion, it is expedient also to set up a fund for joint investing in sectoral companies with the state being a minority investor. Reiman proposed attracting the leading Western venture funds and Russian capital as co-investors in the fund.
The minister also proposed unfolding a system of specialised technoparks and a modern information infrastructure in Russia.
The concept proposed by Leonid Reiman at the cabinet sitting maps out mechanisms enabling the young generation to fully embody its professionalism in Russia "instead of digging into legislation in a bid to optimise taxes", he added.