On February 12, 2009 the first meeting of the Council on Information Society Development in Russia created by decree of the President of RF was held.

Speaking at the meeting Dmitry Medvedev laid strictures on unacceptably low development level of infocommunication technologies in Russia and pled to as quickly as possible finalize the project on establishment of e-government and to speed up the creation of the United Portal of State and Municipal Services, where it will be possible to obtain complete information in regards to services of all federal, regional and municipal power structures.

Now, according to the President, in terms of key indexes in the sphere of information technologies Russia has much leeway to make up in comparison with developed countries, and many computers are still being used as typewriters.

The Head of State reminded that on February 9 he signed an act “On Providing Access to Information regarding the Work of Public and Local Authorities” and asked responsible administrations to bend every effort to enable this act in the nearest time. He also emphasized the importance of taking all possible actions for elimination of digital divide between Russian regions and proposed to think over ways of support of qualified ICT specialists.

In the course of the meeting Dmitry Medvedev noted that first of all information technologies must be implemented in such spheres as education, public health service, librarianship and museum services.

The President expressed confidence that despite the crisis the popularity of internet services in Russia will increase, as well as internet traffic.

Dmitry Medvedev set task to create conditions for Russia’s integration into the global information society in two years. Leonid Reiman, Counsellor to the President of RF and Secretary of the Council, expressed opinion that working out of the Information Society Development Strategy in mid-term will contribute to moving Russia’s rating to the first twenty countries.

The Head of State encouraged Leonid Reiman’s initiative on creation of working groups responsible for particular trends within the framework of the Information Society Development Strategy. It is assumed that such format of the Council’s work will overcome interdepartmental dissociation. At the meeting the Counsellor to the President announced jurisdictions and chiefs of working groups representing leading departments:

• Development of National Infocommunication Infrastructure (head of the Ministry of Communications and Media of RF Igor Shchogolev);
• ICT in Education, Science and HR Issues (Head of the Ministry of Education and Science of RF Andrey Fursenko);
• ICT in Public Health Services and People’s Social Security (head of the Ministry of Public Health Services and Social Development of RF Tatiana Golikova);
• ICT for Providing of Life-Saving Safety (head of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Response Sergey Shoygu);
• ICT in Industry (head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko);
• Development of E-Government (deputy head of the RF Government Office Dmitry Ryzhkov);
• ICT in the System of Cultural and Humanitarian Heritage (Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev);
• Resistance to ICT Potential’s Use for Damaging National Interests (director of Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov);
• ICT Development in the Regions (the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov).

Dmitry Medvedev suggested to assign the coordination of those groups to the Government and authorized Leonid Reiman to head it.

The Governor of the Tver Region Dmitry Zelenin speaking on the regional aspect of the Strategy’s development set forward several initiatives.

The Head of the Ministry of Communications and Media of RF Igor Shchogolev reported on plans of regional informatization and creation of the Council of Lead Constructors in ICT sphere.

Chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Development Fund Igor Jurgens reporting on behalf of the expert community mentioned closedness of departments as one of the main problems.

Stenographic report on the first meeting of the Council on Information Society Development is available at the website of the President of RF: http://www.kremlin.ru/sdocs/news.shtml.

While preparing to the meeting of the Council the results of researches conducted by IIS were used.