At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussed trends in IT development and cooperation in educational programmes and R&D projects. They also spoke about the formation and protection of databases, cloud computing and the need to combat IT piracy.

The participants in the meeting devoted special attention to the joint projects of Microsoft and the Skolkovo Foundation. A document on expanding the previous agreement on a Microsoft R&D unit in the Skolkovo Innovative Centre was signed on the eve of the meeting. Under this agreement, the parties are planning to carry out projects on cross-platform solutions for smartphones and tablet computers, software to support cloud storage and processing of multimedia streams, as well as R&D on face recognition and identification of speech and information.

Mr Surkov noted that the prospective Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo will create additional jobs for Russian IT experts. The number of experts at the Microsoft centre is expected to double by 2015. He also emphasised the readiness of the Government to support Microsoft projects on Russia’s territory. “The emergence of R&D units of foreign companies in Russia will help us develop our own high tech production,” he said.