VEB agrees to cooperate with Kazan IT Park and Innopolis University

Vnesheconombank entered into cooperation agreements with the IT Park Technological Cluster autonomous organisation and the Innopolis University autonomous non-commercial higher-educational organisation at the “Blockchain: New Oil of Russia” All-Russia Conference.

For Vnesheconombank, the documents were signed by its Chairman Sergey Gorkov. Director Anton Grachev and Rector Alexander Tormasov were signatories on behalf of the IT Park and the Innopolis University, respectively.

The parties have agreed to stimulate educational activity to train blockchain specialists within the framework of the Centre of Blockchain Competencies, which is being established by VEB and the MISiS National University of Science and Technology (NUST MISiS).

In September, VEB will open the Centre of Blockchain Competencies, designed to establish an R&D centre for distributed ledgers (blockchain) and a centre for legal and regulatory support, training, and technology commercialization and popularization.

“We are happy that we have combined the efforts of the IT Park and Innopolis University to develop blockchain training programmes. Day by day, this technology is gaining momentum. However, the industry experiences a serious lack of blockchain specialists. As a leading development institution, VEB actively develops the high-technology sphere by not only supporting innovative projects but also implementing respective training programmes. In compliance with the agreements signed today, we intend together with our partners to hold joint conferences, educational events, hackathons and other competitive selection events to pick out blockchain-based project solutions, in particular, for distributed ledger-based projects,” Gorkov pointed out.

“Blockchain is one of the most talked about and rapidly developing financial technologies. Our University keeps up with the times and accommodates the industry’s need for qualified professionals and scientific research. It is important for us that our new industrial partner not only actively promotes financial technologies but also follows other promising IT trends. I am confident that our specialists and their colleagues at Vnesheconombank will significantly contribute to Russia’s digital economy,” commented Alexander Tormasov.

“We have long been engaged in promoting high-technology startups. So, acceleration programmes are among the IT Park’s core business lines. To illustrate, in the past year we have delivered several financial and technical accelerator programmes in partnership with the Russian Venture Company (RVC), and one pre-accelerator programme in the context of the Finopolis 2016 programme. Blockchain is our main project, which the IT Park will proceed developing in cooperation with VEB. On our part, we are ready to provide mentor support and special training programmes, and engage technology experts and industrial partners. Furthermore, we intend to use the resource capabilities of our structural units, such as the IT-Solutions and the Data Centre,” added Anton Grachev.

State Corporation “Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)” (www.veb.ru) is a national development bank and one of Russia’s largest financial institutions. Established in 1924, Vnesheconombank has been operating in compliance with the special federal law On the Bank for Development since 2007. The Bank’s supreme governing body is the Supervisory Board headed by Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Medvedev. VEB Strategy 2021 allows for Vnesheconombank to focus on financing highly sophisticated projects, infrastructure development, non-resource exports, facilitating the conversion of defence technologies for civilian products, and support for innovations and the National Technological Initiative (NTI) projects.

Innopolis University is a Russian higher educational establishment set up in compliance with international standards, specializing in IT education and research. The University sees its mission as the training of a generation of specialists who will bring the Russian IT industry to a whole new competitive level.

In October 2009, the Republic of Tatarstan completed the construction of the high technology cluster IT Park. The IT Park is Russia’s first technology cluster engaging in IT solutions and the development of IT companies. The IT Park facilities have been constructed as part of the High-Technology Clusters in the Russian government programme, which is being supervised by the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.

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