OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2014. With Singaporean roots and a Russian birthplace, Serguei Beloussov is looking for a place to establish his company's new development centre.

Financial Times included Serguei Beloussov among the 25 Russians who to keep an eye on. According to the Russian edition of Forbes, he is one of the five most successful entrepreneurs to expand their enterprises into foreign countries.

Serguei Beloussov, what are your plans in Estonia?

The main reason for my presence here is Acronis, a company dealing with the new generation of data security. It is a several-hundred-million-dollar company where close to 700 people work. We have one centre in the United States and another one in Moscow, and now we intend to also create a research and development centre. In our opinion, it would be best if that centre would be located not too far away from Moscow. Then our engineers could move or travel between the two countries.

We need a place where our Russian-speaking engineers would feel comfortable. We would bring engineers from all over Europe, but mainly from Eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, and definitely also from Finland and Germany. In that sense, we are doing nothing new. The Google engineering centre, too, is located in Zurich. That place, however, is too expensive for us and many of our Russian-speaking engineers would not feel at home.

How many jobs are we talking about?

At the beginning it would be fifty, and eventually about five hundred. The growth process would take five to ten years.

Would Estonian engineers get a chance, too?

Of course. We are establishing an enterprise which shall be number one in the world in the realm of data security. We hope that many of our workers will be local ones. I have great respect for Skype, but with us it is more exciting. Skype has become a part of big Microsoft, and history has shown that we are getting many of our employees from there. They are just getting bored there. In our enterprise, people can be essential product developers in high positions. The company is growing at high speed. We are also planning to co-operate with universities in Estonia.

Should Estonian IT companies be worried that you may take away their best employees?

I don't think so. People have certain resources which are not limited. These are creativity and intelligence. If these features are developed and constantly utilised, then this will be of benefit to all. Coming here will benefit all local IT enterprises. Our employees will learn how to generate complex software developments and systems. They will leave us and establish their own enterprises. Foreign workers will come here, bringing along their families. They do not have to work with us, and they may end up going to other local companies. If a new enterprise enters a country like Estonia, this enlivens the market. Skype did this, too. Many former employees from there are doing their work elsewhere now.

Earlier you mentioned universities. What kind of co-operation are you planning with them?

We have already spoken to representatives of Tallinn Technical University and the University of Tartu. If we come to Estonia, then we would definitely hope that our specialists could teach at the universities, here. We also grant scholarships and invest into research. We have done this in other countries, too. Estonia has good universities, but they are not among the top hundred in the world. I have said to a number of people here that Estonia should contribute more towards science so that your universities may rise in the rankings. This is very important in terms of success.

I understand that your decision to come here has not been made yet?

Yes, we have not yet decided. We are also looking into Finland, Latvia, and Singapore as well. For the time being, Estonia looks like a good option. We like it here. We are not in a hurry with making a decision; we will make the final decision within the next couple of months.

What do you see on the plus side for Estonia?

I mentioned earlier that in Estonia the Russian language plays a significant role; there are Russian schools here, too. It is very important that on a state level the IT sector has been given much significance in Estonia. By now, you have 18,000 specialists here, but the goal is to raise this number to 50,000. This means that the provision of an according education, the creation of a corresponding environment and motivation are very much in focus, too. This is not the case in Latvia. In Finland it is rather similar to here. I am Singaporean, and therefore we are considering that country as well. Yet, Singapore is far away and the problem is also in the knowledge of the Russian language as was mentioned before.

What are our minuses in your eyes?

There are several of them. The tax system in Estonia is not favourable for an entering technology enterprise. In my eyes, the share of social security contributions is not proportionate. A factory worker who earns 500 Euros and an engineer who earns 5000 Euros pay social insurance contributions of the same percentage. Does that mean that a person with a higher income is more sick? In my opinion, this is not fair.

Next to fairness, changing this system would be an engine for attracting enterprises. There could be lower taxes for new companies for a certain period of time. Once they have grown bigger and stronger, the taxes could be raised to a normal level. I think your government can understand this.

We can see that the Estonian government is very much interested in enterprises like ours entering Estonia, and I like that. I met with your Prime Minister, and it appears possible that we would be provided with good conditions if we came. Income tax as well is higher in Estonia than in Russia (13%) or in Singapore (15%), but the main issue is about social security contributions. We are also a bit concerned that there is not much of a foreign workforce in Estonia.

Who is he?

Serguei Beloussov

Born in 1971 in Russia, yet of Singaporean origin, Beloussov is an entrepreneur and investor in information technology.

His main enterprises are Acronis and the investment company Runa Capital.

In addition, he is the owner of Parallels, Acumatica and Qwave Capital.

He has been involved in the establishment of tens of IT enterprises.

Beloussov has an M.Sc. in physics and electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in computer sciences from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

What is it?

Acronis

Acronis International GmbH is an international provider of data security solutions. The company develops software which allows the creation of data copies and reproduction of the data in the case of an accident. In addition, solutions for the secure exchange of files and the use of data are provided. The company was established in 2003. Solutions are offered for physical as well as virtual environments and for servers like Windows, Linux and others. The head office is in Switzerland, and there are branches in 18 countries.