More than a month ago, within the framework of a joint project with the Government of the Ulyanovsk region representatives of the World Bank began to study the regulatory framework, level of human capital, research and development and innovation sphere, state of the information infrastructure, as well as the use of digital technologies in the state government, business, households and other indicators.

By the order of Sergei Morozov, Governor of Ulyanovsk Region, in the summer of 2017, the concept of introduction of modern digital technologies “Smart Region” was developed and adopted. The document is synchronized with the Program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and includes activities for the digitization of healthcare, education, housing and utility services sphere, etc.

Randeep Sudan, a leading specialist and the Advisor on Digital Strategy and Government Analytics at the World Bank shared the information on international experience of the digital economy development. International expert noted that Ulyanovsk Region has a huge potential for achieving leadership in the development of the digital economy. “In addition to establishing leadership, the region needs to find people who are aware of the emerging trends, emerging digital technologies”. As an example, Randip Sudan mentioned that in the near future, the technologies of augmented reality that can be used in the production and assembly of aircraft components or in the automobile industry will become popular. As he said, the region will be able to achieve a competitive advantage using digital platforms for processing of big data sets and blockchain technologies.

At the seminar the report on the global trends in the field of cybersecurity was delivered by Rafal Rohozinski, co-founder and Director of the SecDev Group (Canada).

According to Dr. Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of the Information Society, conceptual scheme and methodology for assessing the level of digital economy development consists in studying the readiness, use and impact of digital technologies on the economy of the region. The values of numerous indicators influencing the development of the digital economy in the Ulyanovsk Region were determined, and comparisons were made with all-Russian and the best world values.

“Digital economy sector represents two large blocks – ICT sector and content industry and electronic mass-media. Ulyanovsk Regions needs to develop those strengths that distinguish it from the other subjects of the Russian Federation and allows it being a leader on the all-Russian market. These include a very good level of development of the competences of the digital sector of economy, primarily IT industry, to which the Government of the Region pay great attention. From this point of view one of the best indicators in Ulyanovsk Region, exceeding the all-Russia one, is related with system of supporting IT industry” – said Dr. Yuri Hohlov.

Beside the studying digital grounds and non-digital factors influencing on the development of the digital economy, representatives of the World Bank conducted more than 50 interviews with the representatives of state authorities, business, scientific and educational community and civil society. Until the end of the year, representatives of the World Bank will verify the data obtained in the course of the interviews and the draw final conclusions.

“Ulyanovsk Region was the first region in the country, which initiated such a research. We are planning to use recommendations of the respected experts for further strategic planning of the development of our region and defining stat policy priorities in the field of digital economy. When the final report is received, we will conduct all-Russian event, at which our experience will be presented to the other regions and common problems of the digital economy development for all the regions will be discussed”, - noted Svetlana Openysheva, Director  of the Regional State Office "Government for Citizens”.