Novosibirsk IT Center for 100+ high tech companies inagurated yesterday

Yesterday, the Russian Federal Minister of Tele- and mass communications Igor Shchegolev inaugurated the first part of the IT Center (Tekhnopark) in Novosibirsk Scientific Center:

Here is the opening procedure: the minister says:

 Alexey Ershov, LEDAS CEO, receives a certificate which confirms that LEDAS (one  of 100+ high tech companies) is a resident of the Tekhnopark: 

As soon as the minister left the meeting, people ate a huge cake shaped as the building just opened:

 and could enjoy a kind of break dance show:

As for the offices, they are under intensive bottom-up and 24x7 construction: LEDAS plans to move into the Tekhnopark by this summer

Here you may find some official information, e.g. the construction was initiated in late summer of 2010, so far one billion rubles (~ $30M) was invested (about 2/3 from federal budget and 1/3 - from the regional)...  

Brief English verion of the web-site of the above mentioned ministry /  

Bricsys visits Novosibirsk

Today a delegation of top managers (CEO, CFO, and COO) from Bricsys (a well-known Belgian and global CAD company) arrived to Novosibirsk Scientific Center for a 2-day visit. 

The guests observed one of the key places - a building of TechnoPark (a business center for high tech companies) which is currently under intensive construction. 

The Bricsys management was so much impressed that it was decided to immediately go to Anait - a favourite Siberian-Armenian restaurant of Deelip Menezes and Martyn Day. 

There, at Anait, impressions of the day were balanced by Armenian vodka: grape - 45%, apricot - 51,  and Cornelian cherry / dogwood - 51. It looks like Erik de Keyser, Bricsys CEO is well balanced: 

 But real overall balance came when Erik perfectly and unexpectedly implemented a famous trick: drinking burning mulberry vodka - 57% . He did this so skillfully quickly that a photographer was able to catch only the very last phase of the process. In the left-hand side you can see a jealously looking Grand Master of such a trick, Eugene Kuznetsov. LEDAS CFO. Erik definitely demonstrated the power of Bricys:  

April 3: The Report of the Siberian Spring was Greatly Exaggerated

The report of March 27

LEDAS Joins Siberian High-Tech Business Technopark

The Russian Government launched "Development of the High-Tech Oriented Technoparks" program which is informally considered as a project aimed at driving modernization and innovation in Russia. Novosibirsk Technopark founded in Academgorodok (a world-famous research center) is one of the largest development projects in the Eastern part of the Russian Federation powered by partnership between the government and private sector.

The resident status of Novosibirsk Technopark will allow LEDAS Ltd. to maximize the advantages of:
- top-priority use of Technopark services, including rental of premises;
- participation in support programs for Technopark residents;
- participation in innovative activity support programs, implemented in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, the Novosibirsk Region and Novosibirsk;
- participation in Technopark development programs.

The new LEDAS status does not presume any changes in its ownership and will not violate its obligations to any third party.

There are several types of discussions regarding technoparks and around, such as:
- What is the correlation between technoparks and Skolkovo Innovation Zone (announced as the key Russian innovation project)?
- Can projects initiated by government (more generally – top down projects) but not by society (including single creative individuals) succeed?

Here are my short comments:
- Smaller organizations far from Moscow but supported by developed infrastructure (like in Novosibirsk, the city with about 2 million people) can be more effective than a multi-billion project with a political flavor very close to Moscow,
- Academgorodok itself is an example of a successful “top-down” project, although it was oriented to fundamental science and was founded in very different times of late 50th of ХХ century,
- Nevertheless, a technopark based on the Academgorodok infrastructure and fertilized by its numerous educated human resources with already achieved substantial business results has a lot of practical advantages compared with artificially generated Big Projects…

This was my very simplified opinion.

References (English): Novosibirsk Technopark website, Cloud Computing is the First Approved Project for the Russian Silicon Valley (my recent blog post).
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