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The present document serves as a starting point for a whole system of targeted efforts undertaken by all development forces in Russia for the development of the Information Society and Knowledge Economy. The core of this Strategy is forming an equitable partnership of the key forces driving the e-development: government, business, civil society, sponsors and investors. This partnership is based on the idea of a widespread use of ICT for life and work, which is expected to ensure the following socio-economic effect:
- Reducing the digital gap as a result of broadening public access to the major sources of information and social services;
- Forming new public social culture, where people are actively involved in adopting and implementing decisions influencing life of a society as a whole;
- Increasing government transparency and reducing budget expenditures due to the implementation of e-Government methods; and
- Improving standard of living due to the production and consumption of high-quality products and services created with the use of modern ICT.
The planned PRIOR activity deals with all of the above issues and is rather sensitive of responding to the modern development trends and Russia's vital needs.
In order to ensure a more dynamic transition to the Information Society, it is important to achieve mutual understanding between all the development forces, to study and disseminate most successful experiences and lessons learned, to organize exchange of best practices and innovations at the international and national levels, to organize programs and projects for the Information Society and Knowledge Economy development on the national, regional and local levels. PRIOR will complete these tasks through the use of the Russian Development Gateway and regional development gateways integrated in an effective network, through conducting regular conferences and workshops, informational, analytical and awareness raising activities.
PRIOR defines its role as a politically and economically neutral voluntary association of organizations and individuals willing to make a feasible contribution to the Russia's development. Each member of the Partnership has the right to participate in making key decisions via PRIOR collegial governing bodies – the Supervisory Board, the Coordinating Board, and the Expert Council.
PRIOR activity is not aimed at competing with any initiatives, projects and programs of public, private and non-commercial sectors; on the contrary, it strives to rationalize and complement efforts undertaken in the country through modern interaction and information exchange technologies.
PRIOR specific feature is an active promotion of the Information Society principles and technologies to the Russian regions through the creation of regional partnership networks, selection and support of the most prospective e-Development projects dealing primarily with:
- Implementation of the national strategy of Russia's transition to the Information Society and respective strategies and programs on the regional and local levels;
- Promoting development of the legal basis for the Information Society, information processing and transfer infrastructure; efficient national innovative system, system of "knowledge workers" training, and creating socially relevant information resources and services;
- Practical realization of concepts and technologies of the Information Society, such as participatory governance, e-Government, Networked Society, e-Business, Distant Learning, Digital Library, etc.; and
- Intensive dissemination of innovations, knowledge and practical experience in the sphere of development on the international, national, regional, and local levels.
This Strategy represents a framework, which shall be further improved and developed with the active involvement of partners in the course of PRIOR activities development.
1. The present document defines the major development communities as government, business, civil society, research and education community, donors and investors.
2. The Information Society is understood as a stage of development of the modern civilization that is characterized by the increasing role of information and knowledge in life of a society, growing share of telecommunications, information products and services in gross domestic product (GDP), creating global information infrastructure to provide effective information interaction for the people, widespread access to the world information resources and satisfying people's social and personal need in information products and services. The notion of e-development or Information Society development refers to:
- Intensified and expanded use of knowledge and information in the economic and social spheres;
- Shift in the relative balance of the public production sectors towards the increased share of the service sector in terms of the number of those employed and its GDP share;
- Evolving to the human-oriented and politically unbiased social state wherein the type of resources used is changed, the influence of professionals is increased, and the traditional social structures are modified.
3. There are many definitions of Knowledge-Based Economy, or Knowledge Economy, or k-Economy. The definition used in these documents is one offered by one of the leading specialists in the field - Karl Dahlman, Program Director of Knowledge Products and Outreach division of the World Bank: “A type of economy where innovation - the creation, acquisition and dissemination of knowledge - is the major driving force of economic and social development.”
4. The classical interpretation views development as a non-reversible, directed, plausible change of the material and ideal objects. Only the simultaneous presence of the aforementioned qualities separates the development processes from all other changes. As a result of development process, the qualitative shift takes place, which signifies of a modification of structure or composition of an object (i.e., appearance, transformation or loss of its elements and relationships.) In the context of this document, the concept of “development” is used to mean “information society development.”
5. The present section utilizes the analytic materials included in the Program of Medium-Term Socio-Economic Development of the Russian Federation (2003-2005).
6. More detailed data on Russia's readiness for the Information Society and Knowledge economy development are presented in the analytic report "ICT Infrastructure and e-Readiness Assessment for Russian Federation", prepared by the Institute of the Information Society with financial support of infoDev program of the World Bank (grant # ICT 018) in 2003.
7. The Federal Program "e-Russia" and the Doctrine on Information Security of the Russian Federation.
8. Federal law "About Information, Informatization and Information Protection" and other laws.
9. Growth in 2002 by 10.3% as compared to the 2001 index.
10. According to the available estimates, the potential growth of the Russian economy blocked by excess administrative barriers amounts to 5-7% of GDP; excess initial inspection (activity licensing) contribute to that considerably - for example, in the European Union 4% of the product range is subject to obligatory certification, in Russia this share reaches 80%, the number of licensed types of activity varies in the EU countries from 30 to 90, in Russia it exceeds 200.
11.For example, the level of software, audio and video piracy in Russia reached 88% in 2000, according to the data achieved by BSA; in 2002 this level decreased only by 1%.
12. The share of innovation-active enterprises in the Russian economy reached in 2000 only 8.8%, whereas average EU value reached 50% (in Germany, for example, over 60%).
13. The share of expenditures on R&D in GNP varies about 1% (in developed countries - from 2 to 4%, in USSR in 1990 it slightly exceeded 2%), in constant prices expenditures on research and development dropped three times as compared to 1990, the number of workers in the scientific sector decreased more than twice and continues to fall.
14. In terms of the volume of knowledge received from the outside, in China this indicator is 70 times higher.
15. Important components of business environment should include the system of venture financing, efficient system of intellectual property protection, developed infrastructure of innovations support and others.
16. In 2000, the World Bank put forward an initiative of creating an international and announced as part of the infoDev program the competition for creating country gateways (CGs), the independent partners of the Development Gateway with over 70 participants in two years. National partnerships with representatives of the main driving forces of the Information Society development - government, business, civil society - are being created for the gateways formation. Today it is a network of over 50 national partnerships integrating representatives from public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Their mission is contributing to the innovative and effective use of the Internet and other ICT to reduce poverty in their countries and gaining sustainable development. CGs are viewed internationally as tools for creating development communities, their efficient cooperation, and realization of their community and business interests corresponding with the stated mission.
17. Knowledge worker of the 21st century is any worker operating in the networked, fully integrated world. They are not simply carrying out repetitive operations but formulating and implementing their understanding of the task at hand. This can be reflected in the form of critical data analysis, decision making (including key decisions), innovative actions or giving their interpretation of the data available for other people. They can use data developed by integrated systems, analyze these data, and apply them for the benefit of both a particular enterprise and society on the whole (Shawn Lake, Content and Technologies Director, Global Trade Training, Republic of South Africa).
18. Governance - the process when organizations, enterprises and groups shape their interests and needs, enjoy their rights and opportunities and complete their obligations, and resolve emerging disputes. This leads to the search of methods helping knowledge societies to use more effective, transparent and active forms of governance on the local, regional, national and global levels.
19. e-Government - metaphor describing interaction of public authorities and society with the use of ICT.
20. Networked Society- society, wherein a considerable part of information interaction is carried out via information and communication networks.
21. e-Business - conducting business with the help of electronic documentation processing in the Internet. It includes presence of the company's Internet site, virtual shop, company management system, use of e-Advertising, marketing, "business to business" or "business to customer" model.
22. Distant learning - new type of completing the learning process based on the use of modern ICT allowing distance learning without direct, personal contact between the teacher and the student.
23. Digital library- distributed information system allowing safe and efficient use of dissimilar collections of e-documents (text, graphics, audio, video, etc) via global data transfer network in the form that is convenient for the end user.
24. Creation of the pilot network of regional development gateways is planned to be commenced in 2003 as part of the Federal Program "eRussia (2002-2010)", Program Event #11.
25. More exact formulation of this provision in terms of a possibility and, in some cases, necessity to use in-house products, which are not open software, is assigned to the PRIOR Expert Council. Until such a formulation is available, the current one is used.
26. It was decided to establish PRIOR as a voluntary public-private association without founding a separate legal entity.
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