September 24, 2014, Center of Excellence in Information Technology (9 Studenților Str., behind the Block of studies no. 3, Technical University of Moldova)
The Memorandum of Understanding setting out an alliance between the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Microsoft and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) will be signed on September 24, 2014 in order to create the first Center of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) in the Republic of Moldova. The document will be signed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Iurie Leancă, the Minister of Education of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu, the Minister of Information Technology and Communications of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip, the Director of the Center of Electronic Governance Stela Mocan, the USAID Country Director Kent A. Larson, Microsoft Moldova Country Manager Vicky Rentzepi, IBM Romania Director Valeriu Nistor, the Rector of the Technical University of Moldova (UTM) Ion Bostan and the Executive Director of the Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies (AICT) Ana Chirița.
The Center of Excellence shall stimulate the economic growth of the Republic of Moldova by ensuring an adequate inflow of highly qualified specialists for the ICT sector, the enhancement of the innovation potential in the ICT field and the creation of an eco-system favorable to the development of the entrepreneurship.
ICT represents a priority for Moldova, scoring a 9%-share in the GDP and being a lucrative sector with high added value and a catalyst of the economic growth. Currently, the main impediment for sector development and its fill potential achievement lies in the shortage of qualified human resources and the under-developed entrepreneurship eco-system.
The Center of Excellence shall increase the capacity and the offer of educational institutions and shall minimize the existing skills gap. The essential contribution of the Center to the improvement of the process of ICT specialists training will be signaled by combining the best educational practices, the latest technology and the transfer of knowledge and experience. The students, the IT professionals and other interested stakeholders will benefit from the opportunity of practical skills and competences development, adjusted to present requirements of the industry and international trends. The CEIT will be a technologic and entrepreneurship hub ensuring the premises for the applied research and innovation projects launch.
The Center will be founded within the Technical University of Moldova on a total area of about 3400 sq. m. Established as a public-private partnership, the Center will represent an interuniversity educational platform granting access to study, development and research opportunities to all educational institutions involved in the process of IT specialists training. The CEIT will provide labs and rooms equipped with the latest technology, competitive and practical educational curricula, state-of-the-art technology (such as Model-driven software development, mobile business models, new cloud, cyber security, Big Data & Analytics, etc.) and an advanced technological study environment.
The USAID will assign about USD 2 million in the course of three years for the creation of the CEIT. These funds will be used for finishing rooms, procurement of equipment and technical assistance for the institutional capacity development (including management, training, content development). The project will be implemented by the AICT. The USAID contribution will be supplemented in the initial phase by the multinational companies IBM and Microsoft. The contribution of partners will materialize into new educational resources, curricula, technology, software, trainers, practical projects and mentoring programs. It is expected that in the future other partners, both private companies and donors, will be involved in the project. The CEIT will train about 1,000 students annually.
