''It is quite possible that regions will spend huge resources for useless purposes''
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Maksim Akimov ‘’took the tasks with himself’’ from Innopolis
What number of residents and the amount of investment was attracted last year by Kazan IT Park and SEZ Innopolis and what kind of assistance is needed for regional projects from the federal centre — the answers to these questions were given at an annual board meeting of the ministry of communications, held on 5 January in Innopolis. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
''We need to make so that people who study here want to stay in Russia''
The annual board meeting of the ministry of information and communications of the Republic of Tatarstan, as usual, did not take place without participation of federal guests: if last year former Minister of Communications Nikolay Nikiforov was invited to the meeting, this time it was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Maksim Akimov, in charge of communications and digital economy. Before that, the deputy prime minister got acquainted with the projects of Innopolis University, took a ride with the president of the Republic of Tatarstan in a Yandex unmanned vehicle, and also visited the exhibition of the latest Tatarstan developments in the field of IT and talked with students of Innopolis.
Because of the strict regulations, the students could not thoroughly ask Akimov and Rustam Minnikhanov, but they still managed to ask some important questions. In particular, a first-year student, who came to Tatarstan from Syria, complained that due to bureaucratic delays many foreign students were forced to return home after graduation, despite the desire to stay and work in Innopolis.
''Our task is not only to export educational services. We need to make sure that the people who study here love our country so much that they want to stay here. And the country should be rich enough to be able to make a competitive offer to such outstanding people. But if there are any other obstacles, we should definitely remove them. On my instructions, an investigation will be conducted, and we will find out what needs to be done to make this process quick, simple, paperless and non-bureaucratic. Moreover, I know that it is s being worked out a proposal that allows to grant the citizenship of the Russian Federation to such specialists in an accelerated mode,'' Akimov answered.
Another problematic issue was addressed to the president of the republic: one of the students asked Minnikhanov to help with the creation of a military department at Innopolis University. The problem is that it cannot be opened on the basis of a non-state university. In response, the head of the republic did not give any promises, but assured, ''We have heard you. We will start working on it and report to you later.''
What has IT industry achieved over the past year?
At the enlarged meeting, the first report was made by Minister of Informatization and Communication of the Republic of Tatarstan Roman Shaykhutdinov, who reported on the main results of IT industry in 2018. The main indicators are as follows: gross income amounted to 56,7 billion rubles, the share of profitable organizations in the field of information and communication reached 77,1%, and the average monthly salary of industry workers amounted to 43,500 rubles.
Also, over the past year, 2,799 new cellular base stations were put into operation, and the number of LTE stations increased by 53%, which affected the number of mobile Internet users in the region — an increase of 6% (3,6 million devices), and the volume of traffic consumed increased by 59% (212,000 TB). It should be also noted about the placement in eight cities of the republic of base stations using the standards of Internet of Things LoraWAN and NB-IoT, as well as the launch of pilot projects to collect information from water, electricity and heat meters.
In 2018, more than 57,000 video cameras began their work in public places, which allowed to solve about 2,000 crimes. At the same time, the facial recognition system, launched in Almetyevsk, was able to recognize two people who were wanted.
Good results were achieved in the provision of services in electronic form — last year, residents of Tatarstan used this option 211 million times, which is 1,6 times more than in 2017. The ministry of informatization and communication calculated the socio-economic effect of the use of the services online: every year Tatarstan saves 150 million rubles on the absence of a commission on the portal of public services of the Republic of Tatarstan, 31,3 million hours — with a remote appointment to a doctor, 5,6 million hours — when making an appointment to a municipal services office, 8 million hours — when submitting applications and documents online.
Besides, Shaykhutdinov announced the result indicators of SEZ Innopolis, where 77 resident companies work today with a total declared investment volume of 9,71 billion rubles and the revenue of 71,98 billion rubles. The total volume of investments increased by 114% compared to 31 December 2017 and amounted to 6,9 billion rubles, and the amount of revenue of resident companies (cumulatively) reached 4,6 billion rubles.
What did the republic ask the feds?
During the meeting, the republican speakers without hesitation pointed to the existing problems and asked for support in solving them. For example, Director General of SEZ Innopolis Renat Khalimov appealed to Akimov with a request to reduce the rate of insurance premiums for residents of the special economic zone. In the same vein, Director General of ICL-KPO VS JSC Viktor Dyachkov made a speech at the meeting.
''We need support at the federal level in obtaining loans for the construction of a new building in Kazan, which involves the placement of about 1,500 specialists. In addition, we, of course, need the conditions of work in the SEZ to be equated to the conditions in the territories of advanced development. Today, the labour market in the field of IT is open, and not only companies, but whole countries compete for specialists. If earlier we competed in the international market, for example, with India, today many European countries offer attractive conditions for work. The offices in Holland, Germany and Switzerland are actively offering to open offices there, and there conditions are generally better than in our country. For example, if we talk about the SEZ of Switzerland, there residents are generally exempt from taxes for 3-5 years,'' said Dyachkov.
In his speech, Rustam Minnikhanov outlined the issues requiring federal support.
''Today, a lot needs to be changed, especially in terms of software products of domestic development. All of us are aimed in this direction, but we cannot estimate the standards for assessing the cost and complexity of this work. It is necessary to have a database (store or stock solutions) of best practices, as it is quite possible that regions will spend huge resources on useless purposes. I would ask to create a single federal platform for this, where we, for example, could find out what products have already been developed,'' the head of the republic addressed to Akimov.
Another issue that required support from ''the top'' concerned the interaction between regional and federal information systems: ''We have launched our site a little earlier than the feds, but recently we havent' had the possibility to work with some federal information systems. Why our regional platform cannot obtain information of the internal ministry, pension fund, registry office? We are engaged in one business, and I don't think that regional platforms harm someone,'' Rustam Minnikhanov said.
In addition, the president asked to pay attention to the quality of mobile communication and the methodology of its evaluation, and also asked to support the republic in terms of launching 5G projects.
''The uniqueness of the current situation is that we not only understand what to do, but also are in a strong alliance with the regions, municipalities and political leadership of the country. Also, dear friends, for once we have been given resources, and if we dispose them stupidly, incompetently and thievishly, it will be just a crime. We are living in a very happy time in terms of realizing our digital ambitions, and we need to use our resources wisely, and this can be done only in dialogue with the regions. Therefore, the tasks that I will take from here with myself will certainly be solved. We have the resources for that,'' promised Maksim Akimov.
