Import substitution department may appear in the Ministry of Communications

Photo: Dragana Gerasimoski \ shutterstock.com

Yesterday it became known that the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) announced a new appointment: the agency was hired by Yevgeny Kovnir, who previously headed the Department of Information Technology Development of the Ministry of Communications. In connection with the departure of Kovnir, this department may be liquidated, Vedomosti writes . But instead, the agency may receive a new department that will deal with issues of import substitution. The new structure will most likely be involved in the evaluation and analysis of informatization programs of various government agencies, including monitoring the implementation of the software import substitution plan.

If this department really appears, then Deputy Minister Alexei Sokolov, who now oversees information security, will be responsible for its work.

As for the software import substitution plan, the Ministry of Communications approved it on April 1 of this year. According to the document, by 2025, developers from the Russian Federation should reduce their dependence on imports of the most important types of software. The decrease in dependence should be quite strong - from 50-95 to 10-50%. On June 2, the Ministry has already selected priority projects for the financing of which 18 billion rubles were requested. government grants.

The allocation of grants was to be handled by the appropriate autonomous non-profit organization. Already at the end of June, it became known that the proposal of the Ministry of Communications to create such an organization did not find support from the Ministry of Economic Development. In addition, at the end of July, the Accounts Chamber called the work of the Ministry of Communications on the plan of import substitution unsatisfactory.