Russia e-Gov Program: 2020-Perspectives

Abstract

The information technologies are developing at a rapid pace in Russia and penetrate into the everyday life of the Russian people, today every third Russian family browses the web. E-business and e-commerce are developing, the information and communication technologies (ICT) are being widely used in medicine, health care, education, and science. Taking into account the rapid pace of the ICT development, the state began the work on e-government introduction in Russia. The Target Program “E-Russia” was adopted. Initially, it was planned to develop the arrangements on the budget consolidation of different departments which help adopt new information technologies, and to create a platform for the integration of the departmental databases and the organization of the end-to-end e-circulation of documents. At the very beginning of the program implementation considerable amendments to the E-Russia program were adopted as a result of a constructive discussion between all the participants concerned. The amendments turned the program from an interdepartmental program to the program of the introduction of e-government. The E-government Concept of the Russian Federation was adopted. The Concept established the main priorities, directions, and stages of the e-government introduction in the Russian Federation. The government also adopted the Information-oriented Society Development Strategy of the Russian Federation which approves control values of the information-oriented society development in the Russian Federation for the period till 2015. Thus, these measures will have ensured the e-rendering of 74 state services by means of the state services web portal, and will have provided the introduction of the interdepartmental end-to-end e-circulation of documents by 2015.

Keywords: digital divide in Russia, e-government in Russia, E-Russia, ICT development in Russia, Information-oriented Society Development Strategy of the Russian Federation.

PREREQUISITES FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF E-GOVERNMENT

The level of application of the information technologies in everyday life, medicine, health care, education, and science as well as the authorities activities at all levels enabled the introduction of e-government in the Russian Federation.

Thus, Russia is catching up with the developed countries very quickly in the number of personal computers per head and in the Internet access availability. The level of computer literacy is also rising.

At the same time e-business and e-commerce are developing at a rapid pace. The information and communication technologies (ICT) are being widely used in everyday life, medicine, health care, education, and science. [16]

IT DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA AND DIGITAL DIVIDE

Historically, for the reason of its geographical length Russia failed to ensure the evenness of the present and the new generation telecommunications coverage in its territory.

However, the Internet penetration in Russia continues to grow. A report by GFK Group says the number of Russian families who have Internet access increased significantly. Currently, every third Russian family browses the Web (see Fig. 1) [18] . Not surprisingly, Moscow has the biggest Internet penetration rate of 52 percent, while the Russian Far East region has the lowest penetration rate of 21 percent. The report also says, that 72 percent of Russians reported that the economical crisis had no effect on the level of their Internet usage. Another interesting fact is the increase in the number of Russians who go online via mobile devices. According to the same report, 46 percent of Internet users use their hand-held devices. The majority among those users consists of young people aged 16-19 (81 percent). [18]

According to ACM-Consulting, the number of Runet (Russian Internet) users who have a broadband access in 2009 has raised by 36 percent from 8.3 to 11.3 millions.

At the same time, the size of Russian broadband market increased by 60 percent during last year, and it is currently estimated at $2.7 billion.
According to Russian newspaper “Vedomosty,” the telecommunication experts predict that in 2010 the broadband market will primarily develop in Russian regions, since ¾ of the families of Moscow Internet users already have broadband access. Consequently, Internet providers will focus mostly on smaller cities.

The recent International Telecommunication Unit (ITU) report “The Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009: CIS” supports the claim that the Russian Internet expands very fast. According to ITU, there are 45,250,000 Internet users in Russia as of June 2009.

Fig. 1. Home Internet penetration in the Russian Federation, 2000-2009.

That is 32.3 percent of the population. The report also explains the nature of a major gap in Russian Internet infrastructure and supports the recent GFK discovery in regard to the Russian Far East.

In Russia, a substantial digital divide can be observed among the Internet penetration and the average speed of the Internet access in major cities across the country’s regions (see Fig. 2).

Also the average speed of the Internet access in Moscow and St.-Petersburg is about seven Мbps, compared to approximately 410 kbps in other large cities. This divide affects the price policies of the Internet providers, with the cost of Internet services in regional cities largely exceeding that in Moscow and St.-Petersburg.

Fig. 2. The distribution of Internet penetration by geographical regions of the Russian Federation.

ON THE WAY TOWARDS E-GOVERNMENT

In 2000 The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation together with the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Russian Federation and a number of other ministries and departments began their work on the development of a comprehensive program “E-Russia 2002-2010”.

Initially, it was planned to develop the arrangements on the budget consolidation of different departments which help adopt new information technologies, and to create a platform for the integration of the departmental databases and the organization of the end-to-end e-circulation of documents.

To coordinate the program, two main governing authorities were set up: the board of directors headed by the First Deputy of the Minister of Communications and Informatization and the interdepartmental commission.

The amendments to the laws of the Russian Federation were adopted at the very beginning of the development of the E-Russia 2002-2010 program, they filled the gaps in law to enable the wide application of the e-circulation of documents and the e-rendering of services.

PUBLIC DEBATES

The issues to be decided during the implementation of the E-Russia program provoked a general public discussion.

Particularly, public organizations, business communities, teachers, doctors engaged in polemics with the developers of the program in numerous publications and media appearances. They correctly supposed, that it would have been wrong to limit the E-Russia program to an interdepartmental program while people who lived in rural areas, citizens requiring e-services would benefit most by the use of the information technologies.

As a result of a constructive discussion between all the participants concerned considerable amendments to the E-Russia 2002-2010 program were adopted in 2004. The amendments turned the program from an interdepartmental program to the program of the introduction of e-government.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

Initially, the government of the Russian Federation approved 5 documents expiring in 2010 which concern the development of e-government. They are:
- The Administrative Reform Concept of the Russian Federation and the program of its realization;
- The Federal Target Program “E-Russia”;
- The E-government Concept of the Russian Federation;
- The Regional Informatization Concept;
- The Concept of the Application of the Information Technologies by Public Authorities.

The Federal Law “On the access to information on the activity of the state and local authorities” and the Government Regulation of the Russian Federation # 478 from June, 15, 2009 “On the unified system of I&R support of citizens and organizations on questions concerning their cooperation with the state and local authorities by means of the Internet” were issued in 2009.

THE E-GOVERNMENT CONCEPT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The Concept establishes the main priorities, directions, and stages of the e-government introduction in the Russian Federation by 2010 and sets the following objectives:
- to enhance the quality and to expand the availability of the state services rendered to organizations and citizens, to simplify the procedure and to reduce the terms of rendering a state service, to reduce the administrative cost of a state service on the part of citizens and organizations, to establish the unified service standards;
- to increase the openness of the information on the state authorities activity and to expand its availability to organizations, citizens, and institutes of civil society, to enable the participation of organizations, citizens, and institutes of civil society in the process of the decision-making and of the appraisal of the decisions made at all levels of public administration;
- to enhance the quality of administrative and managerial processes;
- to enhance the system of information and analytic support of the decisions made at all levels of public administration, to provide a required level of the e-government information security during the system operation.

It is expected, that all the federal and regional authorities will have been provided with up-to-quality call centers and Internet sites by 2010. Moreover, it is supposed that ten most significant state services such as filling in forms of applications for identification papers (passports, driving licenses), of applications for family allowance, of receipts for fines for traffic violation will have become electronic by 2010.

The Concept also provides the introduction of interdepartmental e-communication. A protected system of interdepartmental e-circulation of documents is planned to be developed. All the public authorities are supposed to be equipped with exchange-service stations for transferring e-documents signed with the electronic digital signature.

The Concept touches upon the questions concerning the normative legal regulation of the federal infrastructure. In accordance with the Concept, it is necessary to ensure the following in the field of the normative legal base enhancement:
- the development of the legislation to legalize the use of the electronic digital signature in the Russian Federation in accordance with the international law;
- the introduction of amendments to the legislative acts on the government purchases of goods and services to provide processing compatibility of the information systems of the bodies of the state power when carrying out the government purchases of goods and services, including joined auctions for the purpose of benefits of scale.
- the development of the system of normative legislative acts regulating the order of determining the required volume of the author's rights of property in the government purchases of software, the estimation order of competitive bids including the order of securing and registering the author's rights of property on free software (computer programs with open codes);
- the introduction of amendments to the legislative acts regulating the questions concerning the introduction of the systems of e-circulation of documents in public authorities, the use of open standards of e-document formats in the systems of e-circulation of documents, the creation and operation of the state information systems, their processing and semantic compatibility, the introduction of the unified information security requirements;
- the development of the system of normative legislative acts regulating the questions concerning the information communication between the bodies of the state power in the process of their operation, the participants identification of e-communication, the activity of authorized authorities in electronic information exchange;
- the introduction of amendments to the legislative acts regulating the activity of backlogs for the purpose of regulating the processing order of registers, registries and cadastres, classifiers and nomenclatures. [8]

THE INFORMATION-ORIENTED SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 2018

The strategy determines the following directions of the development in the field of the public administration effectiveness increase, the cooperation between the civil society and business and bodies of the state power, the quality and efficiency of the state services:
- to ensure effective interdepartmental and inter-regional information exchange;
- to promote the integration of the state information systems and resources;
- to expand the volume of the state services e-rendered to organizations and citizens and to enhance their quality;
- to improve the normative legal base for the standardization and administration of the state services;
- to improve the system of rendering of state and municipal services to citizens and organizations. [3]

The strategy also approves control values of the information-oriented society development in the Russian Federation for the period till 2015.
The share of state services rendered by means of the information and telecommunication technologies – 100%.
The share of e-circulation of documents between the bodies of the state power – 70%.
The share of purchase orders, contracts for execution of works, services orders for the requirements of the state and local authorities auctioned by means of e-trading applications – 100%.

The Council of general constructors headed by the Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Communications was set up in 2009 to implement and coordinate the programs in the field of the information technologies introduction. The Council comprises the deputy ministers and deputy administrators of the departments responsible for the implementation of the local informatization projects.

The government of the Russian Federation approved of a plan of transferring to the e-rendering of state services in October, 2009.
“A rigid schedule of introducing the information technologies will be made out to cover every state function”, said Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. “And it goes without saying that everything should be done on the highest level. E-service should be user-friendly indeed.”

The plan includes the rendering of 74 priority state services divided into 20 categories according to the conventional classification used in the European Union. The plan is to be implemented by five steps:
The first step supposes the completion of placing the information on a state service and a state function it refers to in a joint services registry and on a state services web portal, as well as the information on where to go and what papers to fill in.
The second step supposes the arrangement of statement forms and other documents necessary to obtain state services, to copy and fill the documents in online.
The third step supposes to ensure opportunities to present e-documents to the state authorities without personal attendance.
The forth step enables an applicant to trace the document on different stages and see if it is on approval, or on decision-making stage, etc. The decision is made, the document is executed, and so on.
The fifth stage supposes to ensure electronic document delivery, if it is not prohibited by the Federal law. [4]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank Andrey Mukchanov, Head of the International Department of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, Artyom Ermolaev, Head of the E-government Department of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, and Aleksandr Sokolov, School of IT-management of the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation for their encouragement, guidance, and support from the beginning to the end.

REFERENCES

[1] The Federal Law of the Russian Federation #8-FL from February, 9, 2009 “On the access to information on the activity of the state and local authorities.”
[2] The Government Regulation of the Russian Federation # 478 from June, 15, 2009 “On the unified system of I&R support of citizens and organizations on questions concerning their cooperation with the state and local authorities by means of the Internet.”
[3] The Information-oriented Society Development Strategy of the Russian Federation # Pr-212 from February, 7, 2008.
[4] The Introduction Plan of E-rendering of State Services from October, 27, 2009.
[5] The Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009: CIS.
[6] The Administrative Reform Concept of the Russian Federation and the program of its realization.
[7] The Federal Target Program “E-Russia.”
[8] The E-government Concept of the Russian Federation.
[9] The Regional Informatization Concept.
[10] The Concept of the Application of the Information Technologies by Public Authorities.
[11] A. Korotkov, “E-government: 24 hours at the service of Russia. Communications and informatization in the Russian Federation.” Federal Reference Book. Moscow: Strategy programs center, 2002, 0.8 p.p.
[12] The Federal Target Program “E-Russia”: achievements, problems, perspectives. Commentaries, reflections, and recommendations of the First Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Russian Federation A. Korotkov. Moscow: The library of the “Rossiyskaya Gazeta,” 2003, 5 p.p.
[13] A.Korotkov, “The Understanding of the Digital Gap Problem in Russia. The Problems of Overcoming the Digital Divide in Russia and CIS.” Materials of International Seminar. Moscow: The House of the Government of the Russian Federation, 2000, 0.5 p.p. (in co-authorship).
[14] www.gosuslugi.ru
[15] www.kremlin.ru
[16] minkomsvjaz.ru
[17] http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/2010/03/05/227367
[18] http://www.gfk.ru/filestore/0071/0079/694/2.pdf

Copyright © 2010 Korotkov A.V., Melentieva K.A.