Brain Drain trend more visible
The Russian government came up with an interesting initiative that is directly connected with Armenians. Even though due attention was not paid to this issue, it is not excluded that we will have to come back to this issue in several months to understand what is behind it. That initiative is the Russian communication and telecommunication minister’s decision to simplify immigration procedures for IT specialists wishing to work in Russian IT companies.
There is a minimum benchmark for IT specialists in Russia now. The purpose of this regulation is to make employers in IT hire Russians as a priority. Now the Russian government wants to reduce that limit twice to enable foreign IT workers find jobs in the Russian market without quota limitation. There is a high demand for IT specialists in Russia. According to the Russian communication ministry, the competition in IT sector in Russia, especially in Moscow, is not healthy. The problem is that IT companies make agreement between their groups not to hire specialists who quit working for another company within that group because people move from one company to another more frequently in order to get higher salaries.
This is the problem the Russian government wants to solve through recruiting new immigrants into the IT sector. The Russian government is planning to recruit 150-200,000 IT specialists. Local population in Russia criticizes this initiative as it will reduce their income in parallel with growth of competition. However, the government is decisive and backs its decision with a number of facts and analysis. Russia has a strategy for IT development, according to which it is planning to double the 350,000 jobs in IT sector. Russian universities can supply the demand of 150,000 specialists, and there is a risk that half of the will be able to work in their field. “There is huge demand for specialists,” say Russian officials.
Is there any relation to Armenians? Yes, it is directly connected with Armenians – especially after the recent pension fund “reform.”
Back in September over 70 IT professionals applied to the Prime-Minister with an open letter asking to revise the “law on compulsory pension fund.” In IT sector salaries are higher and totally taxable as they have to show their real income. This means that IT professionals have to pay higher amounts than others. The authors of the letter wrote with almost an open text that they have received numerous offers from other countries, which have high demand for IT professionals, thus this new law would boost “brain drain” and emigration. In the beginning of this month they submitted another letter with the same content addressed to the Prime-Minister. The new letter was signed by 46 employees of largest IT companies in Armenia. Failure of the government to solve the problem of the IT sector will be a condition making IT professionals emigrate. They would prefer the United States or Europe, but in case of finding well-paid jobs Russia would be a good option too. There are approximately 7-8,000 people employed in IT sector in Armenia. This means that the demand for 200,000 IT specialists in Russia will “gloat” our professionals. What will happen then? There is high demand for IT professionals in Armenia, too. For example, in a recent interview the chairman of the Information Technology Enterprises Union Karen Vardanyan said that a lack of well-educated professionals in the Armenian IT sector is creating even more demand for professionals, which is one of the main obstacles for the development of IT sector in Armenia. According to different estimations, many companies in IT sector of Armenia have challenges with finding professionals they want, thus they have to hire people with more or less good education and skills, even though they may not be a good fit for them.
The conclusion is that if the government does not compromise and does not revise the decision above, IT professionals may emigrate. If this happens, the IT sector will be paralyzed in Armenia. By the way, the government has announced that IT sector is priority sector for the Armenian economy.
By Babken Tunyan
