MOSCOW, may 18. /Offset. TASS Ekaterina Kazachenko and Anastasia Cruceni/. Minister of digital economy, communication and mass communications of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov in his new post, a large-scale work. On the agenda: programme for the development of the digital economy, the corporatization of “Mail of Russia”, the abolition of roaming in Russia, the entry into force of the “Spring package” and a large number of important tasks. However, not all questions are 100% dependent on the Ministry.
The new Minister believes that first and foremost he needs to deal with the situation in the Department, as he stated in conversation with TASS. Socks already met with the staff of his Ministry.
Experts unanimously called the digital economy one of the priorities of the government. This is reflected in the updated structure of the Cabinet – the digital economy has its own Deputy Prime Minister, became the first Deputy of staff of RF government Maksim Akimov. In addition to the digital economy it is also responsible for communication and transport. Before the digital economy was not responsible Deputy Prime Minister, and the theme of communications as a Deputy Minister was in charge of the Deputy Prime Minister (now the co-chair of the SKOLKOVO Foundation).
New faces of the digital economy
Socks and Governors already have experience in this field. Analytical center for the government of the Russian Federation, which was headed by Socks, performs the functions of a project office to implement the state program “the Digital economy of the Russian Federation”. Governors, in turn, in the summer of 2017 led the government sub-Commission on the implementation of this program. Overall, he acted as one of the main coordinators of inter-Ministerial work on the digital economy.
The head of the competence Center for import substitution in the field of information and communication technologies Ilya massukh said that the arrival Noskov will give the Ministry a “new impetus”. In addition, the Executive Vice-President on interaction with bodies of state power of “VimpelCom” Mikhail Yakushev, referring Yakymiv, said the health and excellent managerial skills.
The Corporatization Of “Mail Of Russia”
Another challenge facing the new “digital” representatives of the Cabinet, is the transformation of “Mail of Russia” from FGUP in joint-stock company. Heading the Ministry of communications Nikiforov worked on the adoption of the law on privatization of “Mail of Russia” but to bring the case to the end he failed. The draft law on the reorganization of the FSUE “Mail of Russia” JSC the government submitted to the Duma in the summer of 2014, but literally stuck for several reasons.
In mid-February of this year, Nikiforov acknowledged the absence of a decision on the corporatization of “Mail of Russia” the main failure as a Minister. New modified version of the bill has recently been introduced in the state Duma and was passed in first reading on may 10. The basis for the adoption of this law has already been prepared, this work will continue with the new Minister.
The money for “it people”
Nikiforov also be called your defect as a Minister, the lack of support for the IT industry from the Federal budget. Over the past six years he has repeatedly pointed to the need for budget support to the “it people” and tried to promote the idea of creation of a separate Fund by type of road. About the need for such a Fund, he spoke at first in the framework of the program to eliminate the digital divide by offering to isolate the “universal service Fund”, into which the operators deduct 1,2% of the revenue. The money fell into the “budget pot”, and “Rostelecom” had some time to self-Finance the program.
Then the idea of a separate Fund Nikiforov lobbied for the preparation of the programme “Digital economy” and offered to combine all the resources for the development of the digital economy of Russia in Fund of it development. Initially, the government discussed the establishment of such a Fund of 100 billion rubles, but in the end, this question remained open. In March 2018 the program has allocated just over 3 billion rubles plans to allocate additional money from the budget have not yet been announced.
This issue will be addressed by the new Minister. Also together with Akimov, he will have to decide whether a separate Fund. “If Noskov will come to us and the Fund and budgets are, of course, will dramatically change the agenda”, – says adviser to the President of the Russian Federation on development of the Internet Herman Klimenko.
Parallel questions
When the Minister headed the Ministry, he often had to comment on the processes in which the Ministry is directly involved did not take or could not take a final decision. Two high-profile stories were connected to FSB – package of anti-terrorist laws (the so-called “Spring package”) and a Telegram lock.
The basic requirements of the “Spring pack” for storage operators traffic has not yet entered into force, Nikiforov together with industry for many months fought for their mitigation. He partially succeeded: the requirements for data storage will come into force in stages, and their implementation will cost the operators hundreds of billions of rubles, and of a few tens to one operator for five years. To the question of compliance with the requirements of the “Spring package” still to be worked out – for example, to adopt requirements for equipment.
As for blocking Telegram messenger – the decision was made by the court under the claim subordinated to the Ministry of communications Roskomnadzor because of the refusal of the messenger of the FSB to provide the keys to decrypt user messages. Finally block Telegram in Russia Roskomnadzora have not yet succeeded, in the process suffered a number of respectable resources.
Nikiforov repeatedly stated that all issues blocking Telegram must apply to the FSB and Roskomnadzor only takes the decision of the court. He believed the media attention to this subject exaggerated and noted that there are questions and other instant messengers, for example, Viber, Facebook and WhatsApp. How to relate to this story a new “digital” officials is still unknown, the public statements they did not.
The abolition of roaming in Russia
Another unfinished story – the abolition of roaming charges in Russia. Despite the fact that prices for mobile communications in Russia, one of the lowest in the world, the Federal Antimonopoly service considered the operators ‘ tariffs for travel in Russia overestimated.
Complete abolition of roaming charges in Russia should occur in the first half of 2018. According to the former Minister, this will enable to reduce prices for travelers in Russia subscribers in 2-3 times.
The digital sovereignty of the Russian Federation
The Ministry of communications paid to the issue of providing information sovereignty of Russia a lot of attention: work on the introduction of Russian software in government agencies and tried to gain support for developers. In just two years, the share of domestic software in government agencies has increased from 20% to 65% (in 2015 and 2017, respectively). Was created special registry of domestic software, now it is more than 4 thousand software products.
The new Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will have to figure out how to speed up the process of import substitution of software and hardware solutions and the overall development and active use of domestic software and hardware in all industries. “It is the task hard, but doable and most importantly necessary,” – said Massukh. He recalled that the President also focused on these questions their attention.
The state operator “Rostelecom” has already suggested 2019 to translate Federal officials on domestic smart phones with the operating system. The position of the relevant ministries on this issue have not been announced yet.
