The presentation of the new edition of the Index of Russian Regions E-Readiness. 2005-2006 will take place within the exhibition and forum InfoCom 2007 on 24 October 2007.

The Index is aimed at evaluating the level of RF subjects’ readiness for wide-scale use of ICT.

Leonid Reiman, Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of RF, will make an opening speech. Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, Deputy Chairman of the Expert Board at the Council of the Regional Informatization under the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of RF, will make a main report. Speeches of Expert Board representatives, representatives of public authorities and local governments, IT companies, civil society organizations, research and educational community, mass media, political and public figures, leading Russian experts in the sphere of information society development are expected.

The organizers of the event are: Department of Governmental Programs, Infrastructure Development and Use of Limited Resources of the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation and the Expert Board at the Council on Regional Informatization under the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of RF.

The new edition of the Index is prepared by the Information Society Development Center under financial support of Microsoft Company, Cisco Systems, and Intel.

The participants of the event will become the first to acquaint with new data on level of development of information society in Russian regions. Data obtained during this year in comparison with the previous Index 2004-2005 (prepared by IIS and presented at InfoCom 2005) show positive dynamics in a number of regions in the most part of 76 indices used. In comparison with the first edition, indices in education, another important sphere of ICT use, are included.

The event "Russian Regions in the Information Society" will take place on 24 October 2007 in the Conference Hall N 2 of the CrocusExpo exhibition complex on 14:00-15:00.

Contacts for prospective participants:

Phone/fax: (495) 625-4203, 625-1727

e-mail: info@iis.ru