OREANDA-NEWS  On 19 September was announced, that the second Information Technologies Olympiad "IT-Planet - 2008" for students of higher and secondary educational institutions started in the Southern federal district. "Southern Telecommunications Company" PJSC (UTK) acts as a general sponsor and со-organizer.

The purpose of the project is to support active and talented young people, to make information technologies more popular, to ensure improvements in education and training of specialists for implementation of national programs "Education", "Public health", "Electronic Government” and others.

The Olympiad has been initiated and organized by the Association of the Companies of Digital and Information Technologies of the South of Russia (АКTsIТ), governmental authorities, leading IT companies and employers of the Southern federal district The IT Olympiad is being supported by the Office of the Presidential plenipotentiary in the Southern federal district and the Russian Information & Computer Technologies Industry Association (АP KIT).

This year "IT-Planet" Olympiad includes all regions of the Southern federal district and has two stages:

- first (by correspondence) - through the Internet;

- second (by personal attendance) - in largest institutions and IT-companies of the South of Russia.

All educational institutions of the Southern federal district and students under twenty-four are invited to take part in the Olympiad. Registration of educational institutions started on September 1, 2008 on the official Internet - site of the Olympiad www.planet-it.ru, students will be registered from October 1 till October 10.

“The Government of the Russian Federation pays great attention to introduction of new technologies in all spheres of life. In order to implement national programs on public health services, education, housing and communal services, as well as to introduce information technologies into the work of state authorities, we need qualified IT-managers, whom we are short of, especially in the South of Russia. That is why "Southern Telecommunications Company" PJSC decided to sponsor and take part in the organization of IT-Olympiad which purpose is to find young IT-specialists having great potential and to create a regional database of the staff reserve for enterprises of the Southern federal district, including for forthcoming winter Olympic games in Sochi", - General Director of "UTK" PJSC Alexander Andreev said.

“We cannot expect a success in development of information community in Russia without competent professional education of young people. - Chairman of the Executive Board of AKTsIT Sergey Shalashny stated. – Being representatives of business community, we understand fully the problems faced by educational institutions. To solve these problems we should combine efforts of public authorities, business and educational institutions. IT-Olympiad is the first step, the first joint initiative. I am sure that there will be no losers”.