Rustam Minnikhanov meets IBM Director General in Central and Eastern Europe

On August 22, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov met IBM Director General in Central and Eastern Europe Michel Charouk, who he invited to Kazan at the international economic forum in July.

IBM is interested in cooperation with Innopolis Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Also, ICL is building a new technopark in Laishevo region, and Rustam Minnikhanov suggested the company expanding its presence in Russia by using this area.

Michel Charouk noted that he was satisfied with the results of work in Tatarstan, and 90 per cent of employees working at IBM in the republic graduated from Tatarstan universities.

“We have opened a prospective direction in Turkey, where our specialists render services remotely from Kazan. It should be developing in other countries. Moreover, we continue providing jobs, and we would like to work not only in research direction, but to involve Tatarstan graduates in applied science. This will help young specialists to reveal their potential. The company is also interested in expanding contacts in banking sector and working more extensively with major Russian and Tatarstan businesses. We would like to develop the export of services, one of key areas of the company’s activity. I am talking about IBM Watson,” Mr Charouk said.

Tatarstan Minister of Information and Communications Roman Shaikhutdinov said: “Our leading universities, Kazan Federal University and Innopolis University, would like to take part in the development of Watson system. The Ministry of Health is also interested in it.”

Rector of Kazan Federal University Ilshat Gafurov said that the university is working with information in English and other languages, and can offer IBM its solutions.