RIF.Kavkaz – a major regional conference – is taking place in Dagestan on August 25 and 26. The second annual event in Makhachkala is organized with the support of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), the Regional Public Center of Internet Technology (ROCIT), the Dagestan Government, the Institute of Internet Development (IID) and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.
Opening the conference, Chairman of the Dagestan Government Abdusamad Gamidov said Internet development is one of the republic’s priorities, as it will help address a broad range of economic, social, educational and technological issues.
Speaking at the conference, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ Andrei Vorobyev cited the latest data on domain name registration in Russia in general and the North-Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) in particular. He noted that Russia’s national domains .RU and .РФ are demonstrating solid growth at the level of three to four percent a year. Today 5,300,000 names have been registered in .RU and about 900,000 in .РФ.
“For many years the NCFD lagged behind other federal districts, both in terms of numbers and growth rates, in domain name registration, but now it has far surpassed the national average, demonstrating the positive trends at work in the region’s IT industry,” Vorobyev said.
More and more school children from the North Caucasus are taking part in the Coordination Center’s federal educational projects every year, in particular, in the Rostelecom-supported nationwide contest “Study the Internet, Govern It.”
ROCIT Director Sergei Grebennikov spoke about the Digital Literacy Index study that will be conducted in 2016 for the second time. He said the population of Russia, including the NCFD, is in urgent need of enhancing digital competences. “Our key goal is to create favorable conditions for improving the digital literacy of the population and recruiting young specialists for the IT industry by developing additional professional educational IT programs,” he said.
The conference in Dagestan is part of the RIF.REGION series of events held in different Russian cities throughout the year. During such events experts from various spheres of Internet business, media, e-commerce and marketing give lectures and share their experience with users and budding entrepreneurs.
