The first interview with Minister Konstantin Noskov - about the priorities, team and budget of the digital development of Russia

Konstantin Noskov: Readers of your publication naturally know about the priorities laid down in the national project "Digital Economy." As for the internal priorities that I have, and which I put before my team in the ministry, there are several of them.

The first is the development of infrastructure or, as I formulate it, "the Internet to everyone and always." This is done by a separate deputy minister Ivanov Oleg Anatolyevich. His mission is to provide the Internet in the coming years to everyone and always. The ways in which we will achieve this can be completely different. It may be a traditional fiber, but there will also be places where we will use the satellite. There must be a minimum number. In addition, we are now working on projects to deliver the Internet using wireless technologies throughout most of the country.

Why is this priority very important? Other industries are hostage to the lack of our Internet infrastructure. First of all, it is health and education. Until we ensure that the Internet is held until the very last feldsher-midwife station (FAP) in the village, the Ministry of Health will not be able to switch to paperless document circulation. Which means we won't be able to cancel all these printable epicrises and recipes.

Until the end of 2021, we will strive to cover the vast majority of state and municipal institutions with the Internet, including hospitals, FAPs, schools, police stations - there will be Internet everywhere. This will allow other industry departments to move towards informatization. At the same time, we expect that the inhabitants of these settlements will also connect to the Internet.

Konstantin Noskov: Another priority is the development of the IT industry. This is probably something that is not directly in the national project "Digital Economy," but this is my priority as a minister. The task of import substitution is also superimposed on this. I think this is a good reason for the development of individual software products developed by our companies. We have all the conditions for this - a preferential taxation system for Russian IT companies, a register of domestic software and, accordingly, preferences for public procurement.

In addition, we are starting to work out programs for the transition to domestic software with state corporations and state-owned companies. In particular, they created a working group with Russian Railways. And this is one of the largest consumers, buying software for billions of rubles a year. I chaired this working group. We have already held a couple of meetings where we are considering the proposals of Russian IT companies, which can be sold to Russian Railways. And Russian Railways is currently analyzing its software products and will further issue technical tasks for Russian developers - what would they like to buy, what Russian software products. Such a seemingly incorrect manual control model, but when it comes to Russian Railways...

Konstantin Noskov: Yes. Similar situation with other large state companies. In the future, this manual work will give multibillion-dollar revenues for Russian IT companies.

The next priority is cybersecurity. Now several departments are responsible for cybersecurity. There is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is the FSB, in some part this is a question of the Ministry of Communications.

Konstantin Noskov: Maybe it would be right. But the task is very complex and multifaceted, here you need to act carefully.

Another priority is IT personnel. This is more such a bookmark for the future. In my term as minister, activities for the development of IT education are unlikely to yield results, but it is obvious that we need to actively invest not only in university education, which we will certainly do, but also in school education, in mathematical education in schools, in order to give resources for IT companies. This will play on the period of the decade when I will no longer be in this office, but, nevertheless, this is an important priority.

Another tool that will be supervised by a separate deputy is the promotion of Russian IT companies abroad. I am somewhat changing the focus of the work of our international bloc in the ministry. I try to shift the emphasis from work at a conditionally political level - interaction with the International Telecommunication Union, postal unions, various regional associations, to more landed issues. KPI for the international bloc is a specifics: who, when, where from the Russian companies managed to sell abroad.

And of course, the digital state remains an important priority. Or electronic government - you can call it in different ways. The essence is one - we must make it convenient for citizens and companies to communicate with the state in all its manifestations. The global vector is the provision of proactive services. And in particular, we set ourselves the task of implementing a number of so-called superservices, these are complex services tied to life situations.

Konstantin Noskov: In general, a team of deputies was formed, but in a wider sense, the formation of the team is underway. As part of the team, I perceive regional leaders involved in digitalization. It seems to me that this is the direction where we did not finalize. Partnership with regions is a huge resource for achieving our goals. Therefore, I will work to ensure that the "digital team" perceives not only people from the ministry, but also our colleagues involved in digitalization throughout the country.

The ministry itself has a natural movement of people within structural units. A fairly large number of people, having worked out the next political cycle, decided to change their place of work. Therefore, at the level of specialists now there is a personnel rotation.

Konstantin Noskov: Evgeny Kislyakov is engaged in the implementation and coordination of the national project "Digital Economy," as well as the coordination of IT costs.

Konstantin Noskov: Yes. And he also has work with the regions.

Alexey Sokolov is the deputy responsible for the development of the IT industry. His KPI is how much the growth of the IT industry has surpassed the forecasts of the Ministry of Economy. He has cybersecurity topics.

Oleg Pak are special projects that we have a lot of. Oleg Borisovich has established himself as an effective implementer of large projects such as the World Cup or biometric identification. Ahead is the Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, video surveillance of the elections. The topic of digitalization of the Prosecutor's Office will go into the active phase - a large and important project. Such projects can be from different directions, but Oleg Borisovich is good at implementing them. Plus, he will oversee the areas of digital health care, digital education, Smart City, interact with sectoral ministries in these areas.

Maxim Parshin is the Digital State. Everything related to public services in electronic form and the back office of public administration, interdepartmental and intra-departmental document management, and so on.

Another deputy is Oleg Voitenko, he is responsible for the back office of our ministry, under it all the supporting services. Plus, he is engaged in ensuring the effective work of subordinate enterprises, services, agencies, and several universities. Separately, it is probably necessary to highlight the direction of development of the postal industry and, in particular, FSUE Russian Post. As you know, the "Post" is also being reformed, the process of corporatization has begun. This is a big project for the next couple of years, at least. Oleg Vladimirovich is responsible, among other things, for reforming the Russian Post.

Konstantin Noskov: Yes. A deputy will appear in this position, who will be responsible for the international direction - this is such a cross-cutting direction, primarily working to promote domestic IT and telecom.

Konstantin Noskov: There are administrative, I would say, taken heights. But I prefer to talk about victories when there are first results.

Konstantin Noskov: A national project "Digital Economy" has been prepared. In the budget for 2019-2021, significant resources were allocated for it. The Ministry of Communications has never seen this amount of resources, in any case, a couple of recent decades. Especially in conjunction with regional resources, with corporate resources that we will attract.

The resources that are spent on the topic of the digital economy will grow many times. And this is generally a certain achievement from an administrative point of view. Another thing is that I do not consider this an occasion to give someone awards, diplomas or praise someone. This is not what is called a quick victory. This is a necessary intermediate step towards achieving the final goals.

By the end of 2018, I hope we will complete the process of connecting all hospitals in the country to the Internet. This will already be a result that can be talked about. But we'll talk about it in due course.

Konstantin Noskov: Let's try. Firstly, I definitely do not relieve myself of responsibility for the digital economy. There are questions - always to me. If you look at the global level, then you need to start with purpose - it comes from the presidential decree, where the goals of the digital economy are spelled out in sufficient detail. The very implementation of the national project is built in such a way that the ANO Digital Economy takes an active role in this. The founders of this ANO are, as you know, a large number of large companies. It's such a business voice.

The Supervisory Board of the ANO is headed by Andrei Ramovich Belousov. I go in there, including me. Maxim Alekseevich Akimov participates in the work. In general, today the supervisory board of the ANO Digital Economy is, on the one hand, such a platform for targeting, on the other hand, a large conciliation body, where we all agree on what needs to be achieved.

In particular, at the previous meeting of the council, milestones were identified for the coming years, which the government should achieve. At the next meeting, we will discuss funding issues.

Financing is enshrined in the law on the federal budget, in our national project. Nevertheless, I readily discuss this on the site of the Digital Economy ANO with both business and my leaders - with Akimov and Belousov. I believe that conflicts always negatively affect the result. It is always easier to be open, to find some mutually acceptable solutions to move together. This, I think, is always effective. Of course, we work closely with the Project office of the Digital Economy program, which operates on the basis of the Analytical Center under the Government. They help us very well, for which they have a special thank you!

I consider the role of the deputy prime minister to be a great achievement of the current government structure, because in terms of his powers he is able to remove any disagreements between different departments. Without "his" deputy prime minister, the ministry in the previous reincarnation was difficult. It is clear that there was a curator, but Arkady Vladimirovich had many other questions. Maxim Alekseevich has this most important priority, he devotes a lot of time to this...

Konstantin Noskov: Yes. Therefore, of course, a great advantage for me is to have such an interested deputy prime minister.

Konstantin Noskov: Of course. This is ongoing work that happens constantly. Therefore, in general, I do not yet feel any friction between different centers of power.

Konstantin Noskov: Federal budget financing - a trillion eighty billion rubles.

Konstantin Noskov: Yes.

Konstantin Noskov: No. Trillions of eighty billion are additional funds allocated under the National Digital Economy Project.

Konstantin Noskov: In 2019, about 95 billion rubles will be allocated through the Ministry of Digital Development. Next in years there will be an increase - 120, 150, 250, etc.

Konstantin Noskov: It is still difficult to say by region. We decided too late on the budget at the federal level - both with the total amount and with money for 2019-2020 years. Of course, we asked the regions how much money they plan to spend on the digital economy, but the regions, of course, in conditions when they did not understand how much the feds would spend, gave numbers, I think, are not quite correct.

Konstantin Noskov: I also join this working group that you mentioned. And now we are working to provide business with various options for investment projects in which they can invest. We will talk about infrastructure and data centers. These can be microelectronics projects, because we will have increased demand, for example, for sensors for the Internet of things. We will look for similar projects and offer them to businessmen. Or just call areas where we see explosive demand.

Konstantin Noskov: Honestly, such magical figures - 30 billion, 30 state-owned companies - did not hear. But, of course, we work with state corporations and state-owned companies. I have already cited Russian Railways as an example. We also, for example, communicate with Transneft. We will continue to work in this direction.

Konstantin Noskov: I think that yes. For example, there are innovative development programs that are prepared by large state-owned companies, and digitalization issues can be written there. You just need to see how this is a working or non-working tool. Whether it will benefit. And sometimes just my call to the head of the corporation about some specific multibillion-dollar competition for the purchase of foreign software. So sometimes it's more effective.

Konstantin Noskov: There was such a story, yes. We then agreed with the manager that we will find a replacement for the part of the products they plan to purchase based on our software registry. The point example is probably non-system, but this is plus hundreds of millions of rubles to our developers.

Konstantin Noskov: Yes, my colleagues in the government most often ask my proposals for candidates. And, of course, most of my colleagues are asking for an assessment of the appointed deputies, candidates for deputy ministers for digital development.

Konstantin Noskov: To one degree or another, of course, yes.

Konstantin Noskov: There are many questions from the regions. We have a chat in common.

All regional leaders, all the leadership of our ministry participate in the chat. I am always in touch, I always see what the pain of the regions is, what global problems arise, what local failures occur. If somewhere something does not work like that, the information first of all comes from the regions. Therefore, here we are always in contact. Of course, we provide assistance.

Konstantin Noskov: Not always so. There are regions - leaders in their own directions. And this is not necessarily Tatarstan or Moscow. Someone will move in one direction, someone in another. In general, I want to form such a team from regional CDOs and create such an atmosphere that colleagues exchange best practices.

In September 2018, we held the first meeting of regional CDOs in Dzerzhinsk. We left for three days. Both designated and not yet designated CDOs from federal ministries participated. The first day was devoted to broadcasting the federal agenda to the regions. And representatives of federal ministries spoke. On the second day there was communication, direct contact, I answered questions for a long time. Then the regions were divided into groups, and did some tasks. In particular, they tried to write sections of regional projects on the digital economy. And on the third day they just shared the best practices. This was the first event of its kind. In general, I am pleased with how it went. I think that we will do such events at least once every six months.

I told regional IT managers - I do not think that I or the colleagues with whom I work are smarter than you. You are on the ground, you do with your hands what we write in some method-recommendations. Let's work together, or share experiences with each other. And, it seems to me, this already at the first event began to work. People really approached each other, asked. Those who were not yet familiar exchanged contacts. I'm trying to run this flywheel. And if we add federal co-financing, then I hope that everything will work. This does not exclude the fact that we will make methodologies and broadcast them to the regions, determine some standards or methods. Of course not. But, nevertheless, all factors must work.

Konstantin Noskov: Not enough, but an option.

Konstantin Noskov: I agree with you. Now this question is also in front of me. The answer is probably not clear. I try different options. Including, asked to collect best practices through the ANO "Digital Economy." They began to request cases from their founders, from business, and transfer to the regions. I asked to look for the same in the regions themselves. We discussed the same work within the framework of the AI, through the Analytical Center under the Government. I ask everyone to think about a certain platform that would allow you to see the best practice, look inside, pull out something useful for yourself.

Honestly, I haven't seen anything to satisfy me yet. But I will repeat again - I am always for competition. Therefore, I hope that by stimulating several centers of competence to do this, someone will get something interesting. And based on the demand from the regions, we will understand that this works.

Konstantin Noskov: We will swing the process further. But import substitution cannot be absolutized. It is impossible that import substitution in our country leads to some critical decrease in the effectiveness of other processes. Therefore, import substitution cannot be approached indiscriminately, and it must be done fairly carefully. Nevertheless, it is definitely necessary to move in this direction, and we have all the resources for this.

You are right that there are some separate attempts to carry out import substitution. Well, this is probably the problem that these are separate attempts. Now, in particular, we are faced with the task of transferring authorities to domestic software in terms of office software. I understand the pain. I myself sat on several Russian products, and I see that this is not all convenient Microsoft Office. But, nevertheless, we are really spending billions now, maybe even tens of billions of rubles on the purchase of this software. Therefore, we must ensure that these billions come to our programmers, our entrepreneurs in the field of IT. And I think it's sufficient resources to create a competitive product.

Konstantin Noskov: We are still going to this. To make domestic office products more convenient, in particular, we made a request for a number of regions that tried to introduce them. Already received from Moscow a number of specific technical errors where this software works wrong. We are waiting for answers from other regions. They "Sunrise" created a group that monitors all these bugs, gives the developers comments. Developers are finalizing, and we are looking right at ourselves how these comments are eliminated. Yes, it's manual work, help developers. But, nevertheless, I hope that in some time we will go on a larger activity...

But what I want to say here, again returning to competition - this market is definitely not closed to anyone. The fact that now there are, conditionally, three Russian software products does not mean anything. If they do not develop, then they will die. And I also say to all big IT companies, integrators, investors: invest, create a normal software product, and we will purchase it.

How to evaluate the quality of a product, how to create such a pseudo-competition is a separate topic. We're working on that, too. But, nevertheless, I will try to create competition between Russian software products here.

Konstantin Noskov: In some aspects, we will not leave the only performer. It's just reality. But, of course, if you can make an open platform or attract a large number of agents to provide some services, we will try to do it.

Konstantin Noskov: We call the Ministry of Digital, but the formally abbreviated name has not changed, and it sounds like the Ministry of Communications. This was a conscious decision, because when changing the name, several hundred different regulatory documents will have to be changed. I decided that now this is not a priority. There's something to do instead. But the web address, I think, will still change.

Konstantin Noskov: I think it is right to go to the government zone gov.ru. We are considering options, I liked it digital.gov.ru. "Number" is, of course, the main word for us. Changing the domain will be an easy and cost-effective solution.

Konstantin Noskov: Colleagues mainly call us the "Ministry of Digital." But, once again, I note that this remains an informal name. I must say that when scheduling documents in the government apparatus, the presidential administration still doubts how to call us short, and most often write the long name "Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation." It is convenient to watch documents: where in large murals there is the longest name - this is us.