Export figure of IT industry exceeds wine production's one in Moldova

Chisinau, 7 February /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu today participated in a roundtable with representatives of the native IT industry. Attending the discussion were managers of 15 resident IT companies of Moldova IT Park and the leadership of the National Association of the Information Technology and Communications (TIC) Companies, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

The PM referred to the evolution of the national IT industry, noting that, starting from 2016 till 2018, the turnover in this industry had grown from 2.4 million lei up to 5 billion lei. In 2018, the export figure of the IT industry stood at about 2.5 billion lei and exceeded practically the export of the wine production. The Park’s resident companies have about 9,700 people and there are about 27,000 employees in the industry.   

The head of the TIC Association, Veaceslav Cunev, confirmed the usefulness of the permanent communication with the government. He said: “It is important that we communicate and undertake actions, in order to preserve the set tendency of the industry’s growth. We should be aware that the key of success is in the creation of the best conditions for the companies from the sector.”   

Cunev proposed to adopt quantitative goals for the next years, as well as to reach the figure of 100,000 employees in the industry and exceed the quota of “tens of per cent” in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).   

A representative of the Orange IT Systems, with about 500 employees, Olga Surugiu, came up with a string of recommendations, among which the professional reconversion: ‘We must be creative in finding educational solutions to employ people of various ages in the IT industry.”   

More managers tackled the subject of young people leaving Moldova and presented it as the biggest threat to the growth of the industry.   

Ion Chicu specified: „We should everybody give up apocalyptical messages. Including the mass media. We should come up with reasonable messages of encouraging young people to have confidence in Moldova’s future. We will massive invest in roads. We will provide programmes, through which young people will be able to buy their first home and the first car. We can do a lot together.”  

The participants in the dialogue confirmed the need to increase the number of students in the IT specialties and change the requirements to the university lecturers specialized in the IT sector, so that the IT specialists can teach without having scientific degree.   

Ion Chicu thanked the participants for time and suggestions and confirmed the cabinet’s intention to support the IT industry: “Together, we can keep the talents in the country. We will take into account Your ideas; we will ensure the increase of the number of budget-financed places at the IT specialties. These meetings will have periodical character.”