On 20 October 2006 Moscow held the first meeting of the Regional Informatization Council and the recently established expert board within the framework of the Sixth International Exhibition and Forum "Russian Infocommunications - XXI" (InfoCom-2006).

Creation of the Regional Informatization Council was among the first steps on implementing the Concept of Regional Informatization until the year 2010 recently approved by the order of the Government of RF. The Council is chaired by Leonid Reiman, Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of the RF. Deputy Minister of IT and Communications Dmitry Milovantsev was elected the deputy chairman of the Council. The Regional Informatization Council includes administrators and leading representatives of the Ministry of IT and Communications and the Federal Agency on Information Technologies, public officials from subjects of the RF representing the level of vice-governor, head of regional administration or minister. The Council comprises presidium, secretariat, expert board, several permanent commissions and temporary workgroups.

The first meeting of the Council was chaired by L. Reiman. 152 representatives participated therein, including 49 members of Regional Informatization Council representing 43 Russian regions; 67 members of expert board representing 55 Russian regions; 27 invited participants from 7 regions; and 9 mediamen.

The expert council of the Regional Informatization Council, chaired by D. Milovantsev, comprises a number of representatives from business, civil society and research and education community. Yu. Hohlov, Chairman of IIS Board, became deputy chairman of the expert board of the Regional Informatization Council. Among members of the expert board there are 4 members of IIS Board: Dmitry Chereshkin, Tatiana Ershova, Sergei Shapochnik, and Alexander Yevtiushkin.

Yu. Hohlov made a presentation on "Russian Regions E-Readiness" (text in Russian) dedicated to the first meeting of the Regional Informatization Council and expert council.

For more information about the meeting please visit the Russian-language sites "e-Region" and "Inforegion".