Russian IT sector needs to move from national to local support measures - minister

MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Russia's information technology sector has already received national measures of support and now needs local assistance in certain segments, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Asked by a reporter if there will be a new support package for the IT sector, Shadayev said "we need to already stop thinking in terms of these packages."

"We won't have such a package, we will rather have many very specialized, focused plans. We have already done all national things that that we could practically do in terms of the situation with the IT sector," Shadayev said.

"We are now discussing several individual segments, what concerns venture capital financing, some sort of specialized set of instruments in order to increase the amount of venture capital deals and stimulate the emergence of startups," Shadayev said.

For example, the authorities are discussing what can be done to support the gaming industry, he said.