On 16 February President of the RF Vladimir Putin conducted the first meeting of the Russian State Council this year. The meeting was held in Nizhny Novgorod.

Current board of Presidium of the State Council was composed on the basis of resolution by the Russian President "On Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation" of 27.09.2005 N 437-rp. It comprises Nikolay Dudov, governor of Magadan Region; Nikolay Kiselev, head of Arkhangelsk Region administration; Vladimir Kulakov, head of Voronezh Region administration; Nikolay Maksyuta, head of Volgograd Region administration; Leonid Markelov, President of Mariy-El Republic; Yuri Neelov, Governor of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area; and Leonid Potapov, President of Buryat Republic.

The meeting of the State Council was dedicated to the development of information and communication technologies in Russia. Nikolay Fedorov, President of Chuvashia, and Leonid Reiman, Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of RF, made presentations at the meeting.

The main issues for discussion were the following: bridging the digital divide among Russian regions, developing digital government and providing citizens electronic digital signature rights.

The meeting was prepared by ministers, governors, parliamentarians, and leading experts in the sphere of ICT. This work resulted in the report on ICT development in Russia. This report was also based on the work conducted by IIS Index of Russian Regions' E-Readiness (edited by Tatiana Ershova, Yuri Hohlov and Sergei Shaposhnik).

It was noted that Moscow is the absolute leader in e-development, followed by Chuvashia, Karelia, Tomsk, Yaroslavl, Samara, Rostov and Irkutsk regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, and St. Petersburg. However, this sphere is considerably underdeveloped in many regions. Many regions are not able to develop ICTs on their own. In this connection the State Council suggested concentrating governmental efforts on bridging the digital divide among regions, at the same time providing high level of accessibility of modern technologies and services for the citizens and development of national communications infrastructure.

As for the government, according to the report, "at present the departments' needs in computer technologies are mainly satisfied, local computer networks with Internet access are established, infrastructure for communication of governmental information systems among each other and with citizens and organizations are being developed". However, due to low purchasing capacity in Russia demand on hi-tech production in private sector remains low.

Experts believe that ICT can help to "provide integrity and coherence of the system of governmental administration on all levels - from higher governmental authorities to local ones". To that end it is decided to develop e-government as a national system for cooperation of governmental authorities with citizens, business and among themselves. According to the report, "it is important to develop a modern system for standardizing and coordinating efforts of governmental authorities in the sphere of ICT which would allow considerably improving efficiency of spending budgetary funds on their introduction. It seems reasonable to establish a governmental commission on information and communication technologies development". It is necessary to draft a project of single information code of laws that would replace the outdated legislation in the sphere of ICT application and lead it to a qualitatively new level.

Several issues raised by the working group that prepared the meeting concerned Russian citizens at large. Specialists consider it necessary to amend legislation in the sphere of electronic digital signature and put it to use. Among other initiatives of the working group it is possible to mention introduction of Russian citizen's social card, which gave every citizen anywhere in the country the right to different governmental and social services.

Community services and energy industry represent another direction of introducing information technologies. Presidium of the State Council stressed that at present there is no full picture of energy consumption and the state of engineering communal infrastructure. That is why it is necessary to urgently develop and introduce an integrated system of energy resources accounting and monitoring the state of municipal economy.

ICTs should also be applied in development of the governmental system of consumer goods and drugs quality control. According to specialists, ICT should be used in implementation of national projects; for example, all schools, hospitals and social institutions should be connected to the Internet.

Presidium of the State Council believes that at present the sphere of ICT becomes ever more an important strategic component of Russia's socio-economic potential; it develops faster that the Russian economy on the whole, demonstrating high pace of growth at the level of about 20 percent a year. Total volume of ICT industry in 2005 approached 1 trillion rubles, while the volume of IT sector exceeded 300 milliard rubles. The materials emphasize that the share of specialists on ICT in Russian population employment pattern amounts to 2 percent. At the same time labour productivity in the sphere amounts to 40% of the USA level, at the same time being the highest indicator in the Russian economy, where average indicator amounts to 18%.

President Putin noted that the meeting of Presidium of the State Council on ICT development is connected with the task of diversifying economy and avoiding excessive dependence on natural resources. He stated that Russia still has enough natural resources, there will be sufficient resources in the next decade, but intellectual potential and development of high technologies is the country's future.