The Novosibirsk Region in western Siberia is the size of Austria and Hungary combined. It's famous in Russia for its scientific facilities, particularly in the fields of electronics and information technology.

Novosibirsk is Siberia's biggest city and Russia's third largest after Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

The small town of Academgorodok (‘academy town’ in Russian) in the Novosibirsk region has been a world centre of scholarship and science since Soviet times. And now it’s an emerging hub of the virtual world as well.

The place challenges America's legendary Silicon Valley for its position at the cutting edge of information technology.

Head of Sibacademsoft, Irina Travina, says Academgorodok has more IT companies per square kilometre than its U.S. counterpart.

“When the founder of Academgorodok, Professor Lavrentiev, first came here, he called this place the Golden Valley. But we now call ourselves the Silicon Taiga,” Travina said.

One of the companies giving the Taiga bite is Axmoor. Set up by two young programmers in 2003, it’s already working in partnership with the two giants of the technology jungle, IBM and Microsoft, producing IT projects more advanced than anywhere in the world.

In the 1990s, 90% of talented young graduates would move to America to further their careers. Now that's changing. Local programmers say the opportunities to realise projects are good in Russia as in the U.S.

Most of present day Academgorodok students will stay where they are.  It's hoped they can dominate the world IT market within the first five years of their working lives, replacing Silicon Valley with the Silicon Taiga.