Izvestia March 2, 2006 THE NON-DIGITAL DIVIDE President Putin wants more attention to developing information technology Author: Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of the Politika Foundation, chairman of the Public Chamber's commission on international cooperation and public diplomacy [Developed countries have long since entered the post-industrial era, also called the information age. So we should not be surprised that Vladimir Putin dedicated the latest meeting of the State Council presidium to developing the information society in Russia.]
Developed countries have long since entered the post-industrial era, also called the information age. The area of non-material production already accounts for most of GDP in advanced countries and information technologies from mobile telephony and Internet to global television and "electronic government" occupy a central place in it. It would be no exaggeration to say that success or failure of countries depends very much on their ability to supply their citizens, business and political class with full operational information necessary for life, work and decision-making.
So we should not be surprised that Vladimir Putin dedicated the latest meeting of the State Council presidium to developing the information society in Russia. There are very many problems at this point. In the 1990s when the rest of the world made a qualitative leap into information age Russia remained on one place in the best case. According to such parameters as the number of Internet users we started lagging behind not only Western countries but even behind some former Soviet republics or China. A "digital divide" appeared between Russia and developed world and very much was said about this at the meeting of the State Council in Nizhny Novgorod. Unless we overcome that divide, our country risks being left behind forever.
Fortunately, the President understood this very well and from the start of the century Russia rushed in pursuit. In a few years a mobile telephone has stopped being a rarity and up to 80% of Russia's population already uses them and in Moscow and St. Petersburg the number of mobile telephones is already bigger than the number of people. The IT sector was growing 300-400% faster than economy as a whole and its share in the GDP grew from 2% in 2000 to 5.3% now. There are 17 million computers in the country, 10,000 post offices already have access to the Internet leaving apart many thousands of Internet cafes and millions of individual users.
Plans for the next few years are even more serious. Both the President and Information Technologies and Communication Minister Leonid Reiman spoke about them. The leap in development of the sector is actually connected with the name of Reiman. IT techno parks will appear in our country and the most advanced technologies will be developed and produced there. Until 2008, Internet classes will appear in 100% of secondary schools, residents of all localities of the country will be able to use telephone communication (now there are 42,000 populated spots without such communication) and all local self-government bodies will be supplied with Internet access. Mass transition from analog to digital television begins, which will improve quality of the signal seriously and will broaden geography of its broadcasting.
Our IT companies start expanding beyond the borders of the country. Cellular operators are actively expanding on the markets of the CIS countries, Turkey, Egypt and India. Highest reputation of Russian programmers forces the international leaders of information and high technologies to make our country a base for their engineering developments.
Not everyone likes coming of Russian IT players to international level. Who likes competitors, especially such quickly growing ones. Hence it is clear why while the industry achieves more and more its curator Leonid Reiman receives more and more critique from Western mass media. This is seen by an unarmed eye that a real information campaign is launched against him. At any rate, Reiman is not alone. Lately, media attacks and lawsuits are organized nearly against majority of state officials of the country.
It is much worse when our compatriots organize attacks. Thus, discontent Russian players can be seen behind many Western attacks at Reiman.
For instance, I do not doubt that Alfa Group having its own broad interests in telecommunications may have claims against the minister. However, there is no need to always resolve the disputes of commercial and governing subjects by the method of information and judicial civil wars in which these subjects become victims. In this affair, Alfa is acting like a bull in a china-shop - irresponsibly destroying everything around it. A company placing its commercial interests higher than the state interests has never achieved anything good anywhere. As chairman of the Public Chamber's international cooperation and public diplomacy commission, I am most of all concerned about the huge damage done by these actions to the reputation of Russia and its top-ranking officials and on competitive positions of our country. This means that damage is also done to Russian corporations and citizens.
The global economy is an extremely harsh game. It is possible to win or at least not to lose in it only when the state and business (at least relative to the external world) occupy concerted positions. Only together (or at least not against each other) they can make a real breakthrough on international market, especially on such extremely financial market as telecommunications. When there is such an entirely "non-digital" divide between them, our "digital divide" from developed countries can only grow.
Throughout its history, Russia has often lost opportunities to achieve a leading position internationally due to quarrels within Russian elites, all pursuing personal gain. It's high time for us to wise up.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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