Rustam Minnikhanov meets with businessmen – participants of non-profit partnership Union of Young Leaders in Innovations from different Russian regions

On July 21, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov met businessmen – participants of the non-profit partnership Union of Young Leaders in Innovations from different Russian regions within the framework of the opening of the International educational forum “Summer Campus of the Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration at the Kazan Ski Resort.

Russian Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov, Aide to Tatarstan President Airat Khairullin, Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Information and Communications Roman Shaikhutdinov, Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Education and Science Engel Fattakhov, Director General of SEZ “Innopolis” and other officials took part in the meeting.

Young IT-businessmen presented their developments, new IT projects to Rustam Minnikhanov and shared their ideas on the promotion of innovations in the economy.

President of the Union of Young Leaders in Innovations Ramil Ibraghimov said that the main tasks of the partnership are to establish a club of successful innovators from all over the country, who aim to train and attract new personnel and projects for rapid growth of high technology sectors of economy, as well as to promote significant innovative projects, including Innopolis and Smart City Kazan.

According to some speakers, they arrived in Tatarstan to study the experience of the region in promoting and applying IT technologies. IT businessmen noted that today Tatarstan is a brand, the region where all the conditions for doing business have been provided, where leadership is interested in attracting new ideas, projects and young specialist.

Participants from Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Yoshkar-Ola, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Ufa, Omsk, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, Sevastopol, etc. took part in the meeting as well.

Minnikhanov, in his turn, said that he is willing to support the proposed ideas for further development of the sphere of IT and innovations at the regional level. He also noted that as Board Chairman of Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR) he is ready to render assistance in the implementation of projects in regions – members of AIRR.

Today, it is important to create an appropriate environment for training modern high-tech personnel, usage and application of best practices, innovation, Rustam Minnikhanov said. He stressed that many sites are now working based on the principles of public-private partnership, and this trend is very promising.

"We need to become integrated into the global community, study abroad, establish relations with colleagues from various fields. As for those young people who have gone to study abroad, in the future we need to create conditions for them to come back and work here, pursue a career, implement new projects. The young people should find prospects for growth here," Tatarstan President said.

Representatives of the Union of Young Leaders in Innovations came up with ideas to establish a department of engineering entrepreneurship at Kazan National Research Technical University, organize and hold the expedition StartUp Sabatuy 2015, establish business-incubator at IT University in Innopolis, cooperate with the Russian Foundation for the Development of Internet initiatives, provide expert support for projects to create and develop innovative infrastructure in Tatarstan, as well as at sites of Innopolis and Smart City Kazan.