Outskirts of Saint Petersburg are going to be the site for building first Russian IT-park, according to the State Programme for Technology Parks` Development. Russian minister of information technologies and communication visited the opening ceremony, where he said that information technologies should become the starting point for national economy`s growth by means of extensive use of innovations.
      
      Geography of technology parks is expected to be wide – science and research parks will appear in regions of Moscow, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Kaluga and Tumen and in the Republic of Tatarstan between 2006 and 2012.
      
      Saint Petersburg`s “Silicon Valley” will have three functional areas. First one will shelter sites for science and production – office centres, research institutes and assembly departments. The second area is designed for infrastructure and town-planning objects – hotels, sport centres, relaxing centre with a swimming pool and leisure centres. And the last but not the least area will become a university town with dormitories and training and laboratory facilities.
      
      Engineers plan to build 500 thousand sq. m of residential and factory buildings for hosting experts of world famous telecommunication companies, students, software manufacturers and attending personnel. 300 companies, including student projects in high-technology fields, are expected to rent offices in the park.
      
      Russian offshore programming companies and eventual buyers of IT-developments from famous international companies agreed to make investments into the project. Siemens company shares its innovative experience and technologies, while Alcatel actively contributes to education programmes.
      
      Source: Science & Life