RUSSIA, November 21 - Mikhail Mishustin: “It is necessary to further improve regulation, eliminate the digital gap, and strengthen our human resource potential. It is important to connect our plans with this new national project. Implementation must ultimately contribute to achieving the technological sovereignty and independence of the country and promoting its own technologies and solutions.”

Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The President has instructed us to prepare a national project to create a data economy, which should be completed by the end of the decade. Today we will discuss proposals for fulfilling this and consider the goals of strengthening our technological sovereignty that were set by the President. He noted that it is very important to transfer the economy, the social sphere, and our government agencies to qualitatively new operating principles and implement management based on big data, which will expand the capabilities of entire sectors and allow us to launch convenient and efficient services for our citizens and businesses.

Today, the infrastructure for the digital economy has already been created. Electronic ecosystems and online platforms are being developed. Most socially significant facilities have internet access. Fiber trunk optical communication lines have been built from Kaliningrad to Chukotka. We also support IT companies by providing benefits and funding.

Particular attention is being paid to personnel training. Specialists capable of producing advanced software products are now in great demand in almost all sectors of our economy.

It is very important to place the right emphasis on our future work.

IT is among the most progressively advancing sectors, with new trends and technologies emerging every year, including AI-based technology.

Given the global vector of the development of industry, which relies on the use of big data, we must develop long-term and systematic solutions. They should be aimed at modernising the infrastructure, an issue we recently discussed at length at the strategic session on the communications industry.

The next stage is to build unified digital infrastructure in all areas – healthcare, housing and utilities, education, energy, and transport. This work will involve every region.

With government support, efforts should be taken to develop advanced and reliable solutions for data processing and storage, including national cloud platforms. These should be domestically-manufactured products to ensure the uninterrupted operation of government agencies, enterprises, and telecommunications operators. The work should involve teams and companies willing to jointly engage in such tasks on a long-term basis, which is very important.

Information security remains an essential issue. Amidst increasing cyber attacks, it is necessary to boost measures to protect the security of national digital and critical infrastructure, apply advanced developments in quantum computing and, obviously, further implement systems related to AI and electronic platforms, including in public administration, to allow individuals and businesses to use a convenient service format that ensures personal data security.

Dear colleagues,

We must further improve regulations, eliminate the digital divide and enhance our human resources, coordinating all our plans with this new national project whose implementation should ultimately contribute to achieving our country’s technological sovereignty and independence as well as promoting our own technologies and solutions.