The Government of the Republic of Moldova has allocated 200 extra stipends for the admission in the academic year 2012-2013 at colleges and universities that prepare specialist in the field of information technologies and communication. Overall, there will be 1,265 stipends financed by the state budget for IT students, the Cabinet said in a press release, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Prime Minister Vlad Filat stated that the field of information technology and communications is a priority. “The Republic of Moldova is facing a job crisis. At the same time, there are jobs in the IT industry that are unoccupied. We decided to increase the number of IT professionals in order to attract more investment into the field, and to offer well-paid jobs to the youth. Along with the increase in the number of stipends, the educational process itself will be improved”, said the prime minister. The number of newly registered IT companies sees a positive growth trend at 11.9% per year. The total sales of Moldova's three mobile operators rose by 4.5% in 2011 to 3.6 billion lei. The exports of software products register an annual growth rate of 49%.