“To implement this initiative, the Working Group on the Development of Digital Economy will be formed in Russia, which will include the staff of the World Bank, international experts and representatives of the Russian partner organizations", - said Oleg Petrov, Senior Program Officer, ICT Global Practice, World Bank. The objective of the Working Group will be holding a series of video conferences, workshops and discussions aimed at the elaboration of recommendations for Russian specialists.

The World Bank representative Mikhail Bunchuk believes that modern technologies are changing the traditional way of the economy, transforming it into digital. E-commerce, digital payments, Internet of Things (IoT), social media - all these greatly affects the business, citizens and the government, said the expert. "Currently there is much debate about what the digital economy. We believe that this is a new paradigm of economic development, which is increasingly dependent on real-time transactions made on the basis of data exchange through digital technology, institutions, regulation and skills ", - he concluded.

"The World Bank and its Representative Office in the Russian Federation have been working on the use of information and communication technologies in all spheres of activity for several years,” - said chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Information Society Yuri Hohlov. “Few years ago, experts released an analytical report on the development of broadband access in Russia. This year at the Analytical Center presented the second report "Digital Government: Perspectives for Russia. Currently, we are working on the third report - "Digital Economy: Prospects for Russia", which is planned to be finalized by June 2017,” – he explained. From IIS the meeting of the working group also was attended by the Head of the Directorate of Regional Programs Peter Ershov, Director of the International Cooperation and Public Relations Department Louisa Rizmanova and Analyst of the Directorate of Regional Programs Alexander Katin.

"In our view, the digital economy is a system of paperless communication and the possibility of a permanent change of different information in databases. The main issue of this approach is the legalization of the database, so that these entries were accepted in court as a justification,” - said Vassily Pushkin, Deputy Head of the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation. He also noted that, In addition, it is necessary to clearly define the vision and the characteristics of the digital economy, as well as the core technology and the current state of its development.

In the framework of this initiative, the Analytical Center and the Institute of the Information Society will organize a series of expert meetings of the Russian partners. Initiative will be officially launched at the international video conference, which will take place at the Moscow office of the World Bank on December 20, 2016.