On 2 December 2005 Congress-centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the RF held the ceremony of awarding the laureates of the national competition Best Region in the sphere of ICT-2005.

The competition was held by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation within the federal target program e-Russia for the third time. The competition aims at evaluating the informatization level of the Russian regions from the point of view of increasing quality of public administration in terms of transparency, efficiency, accountability to the society; it also aims at bridging the digital divide between the regions and stipulating the use of information and communication technologies in economy, education, culture, medicine and other areas.

Since 2002 OJSC RBC-Centre has been the permanent organizer of the competition, co-organized by the Institute of the Information Society.

Institute of the Information Society developed the concept of the competition, methodology of identifying the winners (including the system of indicators for assessing regions in separate nominations), regions' questionnaire, and best regional project questionnaire. It accumulated and processed statistic data and calculated regions' rating according to the competition nominations.

The competition was held in 8 nominations:

1. ICT and quality of public administration
2. E-Government
3. Institutes of public support to the Information Society development
4. ICT in social sphere
5. ICT in business
6. Human capital
7. Business environment
8. Development of ICT sector

47 subjects of the Russian Federation submitted applications for participation.

The Competition Committee was established for defining the winners. Its main working subdivisions are competition subcommittees set up for each nomination. The subcommittees comprised the leading Russian specialists in the sphere of ICT, CEOs, journalists in the sphere or ICT, as well as authorities representing other community forces interested in developing and applying ICT (governmental authorities, research and education community, business, civil society institutions, and donor organizations); 5 of them are members of IIS Board of Directors:

• D. Chereshkin - Head of Directorate of Information Policy Programs
• T. Ershova - IIS General Director and Head of Directorate of the Russian e-Development Partnership
• Yu. Hohlov - Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, Head of Directorates of Informatics Programs and Regional Programs
• S. Shaposhnik - Head of Directorate of Monitoring Information Society Development, Deputy Head of Directorate of the Russian e-Development Partnership
• A. Yevtiushkin - Head of Directorate of Innovative and Investment Projects

The competition results showed 22 winners - subjects of the Russian Federation. Moscow and St. Petersburg turned out to be the regions that collected the major part of awards.

Winners in the nomination ICT and quality of public administration were:

1. Chuvash Republic
2. Republic of Karelia
3. Smolensk region

Laureates in the nomination E-Government:

1. Moscow city
2. St. Petersburg city
3. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area

Winners in the nomination Institutes of public support to the Information Society development:

1. St. Petersburg city
2. Novosibirsk region
3. Moscow city

Awards in the nomination ICT in social sphere were given to:

1. Moscow city
2. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
3. St. Petersburg city

Laureates in the nomination ICT in business:

1. Moscow city
2. St. Petersburg city
3. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area

Winners in the nomination Human capital:

1. Moscow city
2. St. Petersburg city
3. Novosibirsk region

Awards in the nomination Business environment were received by:

1. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area
2. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
3. Moscow city

The competition in nomination ICT sector development was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of the RF. The winners in this nominations are:

1. Moscow city
2. St. Petersburg city
3. Krasnodar region

Integrated results of the competition Best Region in the sphere of ICT-2005 were presented by Andrey Sharonov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the RF, who awarded memorable prizes to the winners:

First group of regions

1. Moscow city
2. St. Petersburg city
3. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area

Second group of regions

1. Nizhegorod region
2. Smolensk region
3. Leningrad region

Third group of regions

1. Novosibirsk region
2. Republic of Karelia
3. Kaliningrad region

Fourth group of regions

1. Stavropol region
2. Chuvash Republic
3. Kirov region

Fifth group of regions

1. Ulyanovsk region
2. Primorski Krai (Territory)
3. Republic of Mariy-El

Sixth group of regions

1. Republic of Buryatia
2. Kabardino-Balkarian Republic
3. Kurgan region

Awards for the best regional project in the nomination "E-Government" were given to:

1. Republic of Mordovia, Project Development and implementation of regional e-trade system of government procurement for regional and municipal purposes of the Republic of Mordovi"
2. Nizhegorod region for the Project Development of eco-information GIS server for nature protection and environmental management in Nizhegorod region
3. Chuvash Republic for the Project Republican system of integrated governmental information resources: office of civil registration - passport and visa issuing service - municipal housing economy 

Within the present nomination a competition on best regional Internet project was held in cooperation with organizers of Runet-2005 Award established by the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications. The best project was developed in the Moscow city: System of interaction between public authorities and municipal organizations in Moscow and citizens.

29 projects were put forward to be awarded the title of the best regional project in the nomination "Use of ICT in social sphere". The winners are:

1. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area for the Project Education information network of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Area
2. Tver region for the Project COMPUTERiYA (Computer & Me)
3. Leningrad region for the Project Development of integrated system of information resources on culture in the Leningrad region

The competition received wide coverage in the mass media. Thirteen information sponsors, including Radio of Russia, journals Computerra, Boss-IT, and Information Society, the latter published by IIS in co-operation with the Russian Engineering Academy and the Russian e-Development Foundation, informed their audience on the course of the competition and its results.