RUSSIA, September 13 - Mikhail Mishustin: “The President has instructed us to ensure technological independence from the foreign software that is currently in use and to promote demand for Russian products. This is very important in conditions of external pressure.”

Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks: Good afternoon, colleagues, We continue our work to expand Russian software solutions. Before we begin, I would like to congratulate all our computer programmers on their professional holiday from the bottom of my heart. I believe that many of those present here initially worked in the IT sector. And, of course, I would like to wish all IT specialists every success and inspiration in their field. Today, skilled IT professionals are in high demand in every sector of the economy as they fulfil a highly important function in the context of accomplishing various national tasks. The President has instructed us to ensure technological independence from the foreign software that is currently in use and to promote demand for Russian products. This is very important in conditions of external pressure. We have many talented developers, and we select the best among them. Of course, we will provide them with maximum systemic support; in fact, this is what we are already doing now.

During our working trips to the regions and at the Digital Industry of Industrial Russia conference held in Nizhny Novgorod in early June, we were joined by business leaders and experts to discuss the existing and potential risks of continuing to use foreign-made software in industry. We decided to build our work around the requests submitted by the industry leaders who are our key customers. They are well aware of what their areas of business need to move forward, and they are the ones to articulate priority needs for domestic technology.

Thirty-three industrial competence centres, which brought together over 300 organisations, were created in order to maximise coordination of customer and developer efforts to implement our innovative digital products.

Top corporate executives from companies with good digitalisation track records are at the head of these centres. They are here with us in this audience. They were the ones to take responsibility for the choice of sector-specific projects.

I will spend a moment discussing what has been accomplished to date.

We have reviewed in detail corporate solutions that are used in the core areas of the economy. We identified the critical niches and areas that predominantly use foreign software. We looked at whether there were Russian alternatives to these and to what extent they meet existing and future customer needs. Not just one customer, but all customers from a particular industry or area of business. To reiterate, it is essential for us that we not recreate the existing functionality of foreign software products, but to launch our own products that fully meet corporate needs. Importantly, they should also be export-oriented, or else we will end up with uncompetitive research designs that can only be used by one or two customers. No doubt, we want them to remain competitive five to seven years from now and not be inferior to the foreign-made counterparts.

In all, businesses confirmed their critical dependence on imports of almost 400 types of corporate software. The private sector spends approximately 200 billion roubles on licenses, implementation and technical support annually.

However, 80 percent of foreign software is matched by Russian-designed alternatives with about one-third of the foreign-made software matched by two or more domestic versions. That is, the situation is quite competitive overall.

Most importantly, more than half of the domestic solutions available on the market have an average or higher maturity level. They don’t need to be designed from scratch. All they need is some tweaking and they’ll be ready to go.

Importantly, the IT companies developed them when large customers focused mainly on ready-made and popular foreign products that were already on the market. They were not scared off by competitors and achieved great results, which is good. I want to thank the CEOs and developers who have maintained high quality with software and development over those years. This example goes to show that we need to keep up this work, including with state support.

In line with the President’s instructions, we are creating favourable conditions for the business community as a whole to make strides in ICT. I am referring to various measures, including tax benefits and exemptions from inspection. The competence centres should guarantee additional demand and provide opportunities for scaling up the use of domestically designed software, while simultaneously increasing its functionality.

Today we have a list of projects based on customer needs; they have submitted over 200 requests for domestic software. They are all being reviewed by experts.

Colleagues, many companies have been pro-active about this, suggesting ideas on how to develop Russian software and encourage its use. But there are some who want to wait, arguing that they have purchased and introduced everything they need and will use what they have for as long as they can, and then it will just depend. I am addressing everyone who, so far, has not joined this effort and has failed to realise the consequences of this approach. We are planning to classify the key types of systems as critical information infrastructure facilities, with the Government establishing deadlines for transitioning to Russian software for each item. So, colleagues, please don’t wait; join this effort.

Today, we will consider the performance of 15 industrial competence centres. These are the most important industries, including all types of engineering, construction, the housing and utility sector, pharmaceuticals, the environment, and the exploration and production of mineral resources. These centres include a total of 150 companies and 100 developers, with over 100 requests submitted, totalling almost 80 billion roubles.

Next time, we will consider the situation in electronics, media, communications, transport, iron-and-steel, trade, and agriculture.

We have agreed that the centre managers will give short reports. I would like to ask my colleagues to assess in their remarks the positions that are still outstanding and to make a point of formulating the funding priorities for the claimed projects.