On December 21-22, 2015, Moscow will host the first Russian Internet Economy Forum, which promises to be both an intersectoral and a State – Business dialogue on the use of the Internet for the development of the Russian economy and Internet-related markets. The forum, sponsored by the Institute for the Development of the Internet, will be held at the Moscow World Trade Center at 12, Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment.
The forum is expected to become a permanent platform for annual meetings, where all the participants – the state, digital and offline businesses, and society – would feel as partners on an equal footing. The forum would serve as an efficient medium for cooperation and collaboration in finding solutions for the further development of the IT-industry and related markets. In 2015, the forum’s theme will be derived from the initiatives and proposals of the Institute for the Development of the Internet on the development of Internet in Russia, formulated on the Russian president’s instructions of May 19, 2015 to set up a long-term program to develop the Russian section of the Internet information and telecommunications network as well as related economic sectors.
On December 21, the forum will feature a multi-stream conference and an exhibition exploring such topics as Internet + Society, Internet + Finance, Internet + City, Internet + Commerce, Internet + Medicine, Internet + Education, Internet + Media, and IT + Sovereignty. The next day, December 22, will be devoted to plenary sessions and VIP meetings.
Invitations to attend have been sent to Russia’s largest Internet organizations, IT companies, ministries and agencies, such as the Institute for the Development of the Internet, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, the International Communications Company, the Regional Public Internet Technology Center, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Federal Service for the Supervision of Education and Science, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, the Ministry of Healthcare, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federal Taxation Service, the Federal Customs Service, the State Duma, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Yandex, Kaspersky Lab, and others.
The Forum is expected to result in an agreed-on set of measures to develop the Internet in all the related industries, and to produce a joint expert opinion on issues of concern to all parties and growth sectors of the Internet economy.
The Russian Internet industry is today the most active and fast developing part of the country's economy. In the last couple of years, this market has become the leader in Europe in a number of areas, boasting the largest audience and biggest companies and the region's most active advertising segment, in addition to being the fourth in investment volume and fifth in digital trade turnover. Unlike most European countries, the Russian Internet sector has great growth potential in the aforementioned areas as well as in other areas related to Russia’s innovation economy.
The establishment of the Institute for the Development of the Internet became a landmark event of 2015. The institute’s key priorities include developing proposals to form a long-term program to develop the Russian section of the Internet and related economic sectors. (http://ири.рф/projects/) Instructions to develop this program were drafted following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with representatives of the Internet industry, the Internet Initiatives Development Fund, and the management of the Institute for the Development of the Internet. First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vyacheslav Volodin and Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov were tasked with implementing the program’s development.
Developing this program has proved to be a unique process of cooperation between the state, society, and many industries, alongside Internet and the related industries, and served as an example of successful inter-branch dialogue. The greater part of experts' work was automated and conducted online, in addition to meetings, expert sessions and working groups held offline. Maintaining this dialogue and taking it to a new level requires a new permanent platform, which would not be exclusively Internet-oriented and one in which the state, online and offline businesses, and society could participate on equal terms. It would also be an efficient medium where it is possible to find solutions collaboratively.
As a result, the Institute for the Development of the Internet put forward a proposal to establish a new annual platform, the Russian Internet Economy Forum, which will have all the earlier mentioned features, and which will become an efficient medium for all the related parties.
More about the Forum on its official website: http://ie.iri.center/
