Managing Director Denis Muratov offered his VIP guests a guided tour of the Idea park, one of Europe's largest IT parks. Spread over 2 hectares (about five acres) in downtown Kazan, it currently provides business incubators and accommodation to 25 high-tech companies. To cover maintenance costs, about one-third of the premises have been leased to Cushman & Wakefield, a leading global real estate firm.
Muratov showed President Putin some of the park's latest innovations, including an X-ray system capable of producing complex radiographic images with minimal radiation, a counterfeit money detector, and extra-sharp cutting blades produced using ultrasound technology.
The total investment attracted since the Idea park's opening in February 2004 has now topped $20 million.
