Reiman Collects Software Vendors Under One Roof
Leonid Reiman, RF Minister of IT and Communications, approves creation of a Unified software development center for public and municipal needs in Russia.
Apr 29, 2008
According to the minister, such a center might unite developers, unify customers’ requirements and monitor public contracts. The Center might also facilitate in promoting software abroad.
Leonid Reiman, RF Minister of IT and Communications proposed creation of a Unified software development center for public and municipal needs in Russia speaking at the meeting with the RF President Vladimir Putin, where members of the Security Council were also present. According to Mr. Reiman, such a center is sure to provide for the development of the Russian software sector, Prime-TASS reports. The center might be responsible for unifying customers’ requirements, including special clients, monitoring public contracts, uniting Russian software vendors and providing them with the necessary environment to develop and support software.
As for the software market development initiatives, Mr. Reiman emphasizes the free software implementation. He recollects last year migration of Russian schools to the open-source software was launched, while this year the open-source software implementation has been launched in some authorities.
‘If a supervisory body is established to analyze the needs of the public sector and formulate corresponding orders, then the state might optimize its costs for software purchase and development, - says Grigory Lipich, Director General of ABBYY Russia. – Such a center should be vested with necessary powers to be able to make decisions in time. Otherwise various state customers will spent too much time arguing, whose needs are of primary importance’.
‘Establishing a unified center to monitor development on public contracts is used worldwide principally to reduce costs related to duplication of developments and to provide for compatibility of IT systems installed at various state institutions and agencies, - says Valentin Makarov, president of the Russoft Association. – The other important issue is providing for security and quality of developments due to creating a trusted environment and setting up software development quality management standards. For example, the CMM standard was initially developed to the order of the US Defence Ministry to secure quality developments by different ministry’s providers’. If the IT community is not invited to participate in developing the regulations and tender procedures, then corruption and discrimination of ideas might occur, according to Mr. Makarov. He believes attracting a self-organized business presented by associations is the only widely spread way to prevent corruption in such projects.
The RF Ministry of IT and Communications tells the minister has proposed only to create the center, so it is too early to speak about the details. The CNews’ conversable highlights such a center is sure to provide for successful promotion of the Russian software abroad. To strengthen the positions of the Russian software vendors in the world market, Mr. Reiman suggests the terms of business should be simplified. In particular, the issue is of replacing a range of taxes with a unified turnover tax. According to the minister, if backed up by the state by 2010 the software export might expand 5-fold from the current $2 bn to $10 bn.
Grigory Lipich considers the mentioned above initiative to back up software development and replace several taxes with a turnover tax interesting. ‘The ABBYY representatives participated in the meetings, where the given issue was discussed, and consider the current proposals rather promising’, - he says. ‘I would like to add that such initiatives should be accompanied by investment into higher educational institutions to consolidate software export trends in the long-term, - says Mr. Lipich. – Such a set of measures helps not only to create favorable conditions to run business, but to train highly-qualified personnel for vendor companies’.
Leonid Reiman, RF Minister of IT and Communications proposed creation of a Unified software development center for public and municipal needs in Russia speaking at the meeting with the RF President Vladimir Putin, where members of the Security Council were also present. According to Mr. Reiman, such a center is sure to provide for the development of the Russian software sector, Prime-TASS reports. The center might be responsible for unifying customers’ requirements, including special clients, monitoring public contracts, uniting Russian software vendors and providing them with the necessary environment to develop and support software.
As for the software market development initiatives, Mr. Reiman emphasizes the free software implementation. He recollects last year migration of Russian schools to the open-source software was launched, while this year the open-source software implementation has been launched in some authorities.
‘If a supervisory body is established to analyze the needs of the public sector and formulate corresponding orders, then the state might optimize its costs for software purchase and development, - says Grigory Lipich, Director General of ABBYY Russia. – Such a center should be vested with necessary powers to be able to make decisions in time. Otherwise various state customers will spent too much time arguing, whose needs are of primary importance’.
‘Establishing a unified center to monitor development on public contracts is used worldwide principally to reduce costs related to duplication of developments and to provide for compatibility of IT systems installed at various state institutions and agencies, - says Valentin Makarov, president of the Russoft Association. – The other important issue is providing for security and quality of developments due to creating a trusted environment and setting up software development quality management standards. For example, the CMM standard was initially developed to the order of the US Defence Ministry to secure quality developments by different ministry’s providers’. If the IT community is not invited to participate in developing the regulations and tender procedures, then corruption and discrimination of ideas might occur, according to Mr. Makarov. He believes attracting a self-organized business presented by associations is the only widely spread way to prevent corruption in such projects.
The RF Ministry of IT and Communications tells the minister has proposed only to create the center, so it is too early to speak about the details. The CNews’ conversable highlights such a center is sure to provide for successful promotion of the Russian software abroad. To strengthen the positions of the Russian software vendors in the world market, Mr. Reiman suggests the terms of business should be simplified. In particular, the issue is of replacing a range of taxes with a unified turnover tax. According to the minister, if backed up by the state by 2010 the software export might expand 5-fold from the current $2 bn to $10 bn.
Grigory Lipich considers the mentioned above initiative to back up software development and replace several taxes with a turnover tax interesting. ‘The ABBYY representatives participated in the meetings, where the given issue was discussed, and consider the current proposals rather promising’, - he says. ‘I would like to add that such initiatives should be accompanied by investment into higher educational institutions to consolidate software export trends in the long-term, - says Mr. Lipich. – Such a set of measures helps not only to create favorable conditions to run business, but to train highly-qualified personnel for vendor companies’.