Rustam Minnikhanov takes part in a meeting on digital transformation of the republic

On July 16, at Tatarstan Cabinet of Ministers, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in a meeting held by Prime Minister of the republic Aleksey Pesoshin on the digital transformation of the republic.

Pesoshin emphasized that in the modern rapidly changing world, the requirements for the speed of decision-making are growing. The intensive development of information technologies, both in terms of hardware and software, has formed the preconditions for the transition to a new quality of their use.

“We should reconsider and radically restructure the activities of state authorities and local self-government to achieve maximum effect. New technologies, such as the Internet of Things, cloud technologies, the distributed ledger, the artificial intelligence, big data, are fundamentally changing management models,” the head of the government of the republic noted.

The Prime Minister of the republic noted that Tatarstan is one of the leading regions in the implementation of many national projects, including the Digital Economy project. "However,  in order to remain among the leading entities of Russia, we need to carry out comprehensive digitalization, to ensure a significant improvement in the quality of life of residents through the introduction of new tools in the IT sphere in the republic," Pesoshin said.

He also added that the implementation of five regional projects, including the Information Security, the Information Infrastructure, the Personnel for the Digital Economy, the Digital Public Administration and the Digital Technologies are underway in Tatarstan.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Digitalization of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan Airat Khairullin reported on the development of current information systems in the republic and digital transformation of branches of industry. He said that about 2 billion roubles are allocated from the local budget to the state sphere of informatization and communications annually. Almost 9 thousand socially significant facilities are connected to the Unified State Data Transmission Network. By the decision of the President of Tatarstan, in addition 1,045 schools will have access to the Internet via optical communication channels by August 20 of this year. As a result, 100 per cent of public schools will be provided with high-speed Internet in Tatarstan.

To improve the quality of work of municipalities, the People's Control feedback platform is successfully operating. Since the start of this system, residents of the republic have submitted 290 thousand applications on various issues, 250 thousand of which were resolved positively, which makes 86 per cent.

In terms of ensuring the safety of the population, two systems are available in the republic. About 5 thousand emergency calls are processed with the help of the GLONASS + 112 system daily. The average waiting time for an operator's response is 7-8 seconds. The Safe City is another system. In total, there are about 63 thousand video cameras in the republic. As many as 21 thousand video cameras are installed in 6 thousand multi-apartment houses. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan, 894 crimes were solved using video cameras for 6 months of 2020, which is 7.7 per cent more than the same period last year.

The head of the Ministry of Digitalization of Tatarstan also reported on the development of information systems in various branches of industry, including education, healthcare, transport, road facilities, agro-industrial complex and the social sector.

 “According to Skolkovo, Tatarstan ranks second in terms of digitalization of regions behind Moscow. In addition, the contribution of the IT industry to the GRP is 2.4 per cent in the republic, while it is no more than 1 per cent for Russia as a whole. However, there is always room for improvement. The share of IT in GRP reaches 10-12 per cent in developed countries,” the Minister said.

Khairullin reminded that the Centre for Digital Transformation of Tatarstan was set up by the decision of the President of Tatarstan for in-depth analytics of existing business processes and increasing the efficiency of public administration. This is a unified product and design office responsible for creating a unified platform. The key task of digital transformation is management training. The head of the Ministry of Digitalization proposed introducing a course on digital transformation for officials, as well as developing a "digital maturity" index to assess the performance of executive authorities and their specialists.

The Minister also noted that there are 361 state and municipal services in the republic today. “Our task is to bring 70 per cent of services into digital format by 2022,” Khairullin.

In his turn, Minnikhanov suggested compiling a rating of the level of the development of digitalization in every ministry and department of the republic, and comparing it with other regions of the country and then with other countries.