‘Now another package of documents is needed, we are preparing it’: ICL to go back to Russian radio electronics registry
One of the biggest producers of laptops and computers in Russia was excluded from a list of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade opening the road to public contracts
As Realnoe Vremya found out, ICL company from Tatarstan is collecting documents to return to the registry of Russian radio electronics permitting participating in public contracts. Almost half the companies have disappeared from this list of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade since 1 April because of the non-compliance with a new scoring system of definition of the Russian origin of radio electronics. Nowadays ICL is one of the biggest suppliers of computers for the state sector and commercial agencies but plans to reach retail trading chains too.
The registry became almost twice shorter
The registry of Russian radio electronic products of the the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is twice shorter — now it has over 4,000 products, but before 1 April it had 7,700, owner of Aviator private technopark Marat Bikmullin told Realnoe Vremya. This is linked with the launch of a scoring system defining the Russian origin of radio electronics. In particular ICL, the biggest Tatarstan IT company and producer of laptops for the public sector and commercial agencies, disappeared from the registry, he added. In Bikmullin’s opinion, now they cannot supply equipment in public contracts.
“We are debating if ICL will be on the list,” he noted.
In September 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved a draft of a decree on the scoring system defining the Russian origin of radio electronics. The system envisages that the process of creation of computers is divided into technological operations. Each of them is given a score — depending on its meaning and localisation rate in the country. The list was cut after 1 April 2023. Before this, electronics producers who meet the criteria of the new scoring system could be in the registry.
ICL is a traditional supplier of computers for Tatarstan and Russian power agencies. According to Expert rating agency, the company ranks 7th among the biggest Russian computer manufacturers. 121,000 pieces of equipment were made at ICL in 2021. A half of it is based on Russian motherboards. Also, the company became the supplier of 12,000 laptops for teachers during the Year of Digitalisation in Tatarstan in 2022.
Tatarstan authorities to continue buying ICL’s equipment
As Tatarstan Minister of Digital Development Ayrat Khayrullin explained to Realnoe Vremya, the republic’s public authorities could continue buying ICL’s equipment because the company was preparing a new package of documents and would appear in the registry of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade again.
Director General of ICL Yevgeny Stepanov also confirmed this information for the newspaper.
“I think they will really return later. The scoring system started to work all of a sudden,” leading analyst of MRG Eldar Murtazin agrees.
It should be reminded that ICL company is actively involved in the programme of import replacement and is building a new motherboard plant in Innopolis Special Economic Zone for its computers with a capacity of 300,000 items a year. The investments in the project are assessed at 2 billion rubles. It is planned that the new plant’s capacity can reach a million items during the next three or five years. The factory is expected to be launched in October 2023.