"Comtrade" to open IT Academy prior to end of year 2009

- "Comtrade" intends to open IT Academy in Belgrade prior to the end of year 2009 - said Veselin Jevrosimović, the CEO of that IT group.

He said to agency Beta at Sinergija that, according to the initial plan, the IT Academy had been supposed to be opened earlier, but that the plans had been changed because "Comtrade" had taken over one of the largest software companies in the region - Slovenian "Hermes softlab".

- That is the company that develops software not only for the regional market, but also for large multinational companies. It was necessary for us to integrate these two systems - "Hermes", which has 800 employees, and "Comtrade" with 800 workers, making total of 1,600 employees - said Jevrosimović.

The IT Academy, as he explained, is not going to be an IT Faculty. It will be providing professional training, and the aim of company "Comtrade" is to use this institution for training staff for operations in the company.

- The school will be certified and it will be working within an university center - he added.

Jevrosimović said that "Comtrade" hired between 20 and 30 new programmers every month and added that the conctracted works exceeded the capacity by 30%.