The first meeting of the Expert Council for Digital Economy Legislation under the chairmanship of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin took place on March 20, 2017. The event was joined by statesmen and members of public organizations and internet companies, including Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov, Chair of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Enterpreneurship Sergei Zhigarev, Chair of the State Duma Committee for Information Policy, IT and Communications Leonid Levin, Director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications Sergei Plutarenko, General Director of InfoWatch Natalia Kasperskaya, among others. Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ Andrey Vorobyev participated as well.
Opening the meeting, Vyachelav Volodin noted the importance of bringing legislation up to speed with the digital economy, which is developing quickly and advancing past many other industries. Outdated legislation may result in Russia losing its competitive edge in that area, Volodin said.
Director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications Sergei Plutarenko delivered a report, Digital Economy: Cooperation of the State and the Industry, which addressed such issues as industry regulation, state initiatives, use of expert assessments, and the experience of and prospects for cooperation between the state and internet businesses. Plutarenko shared figures from the Association’s annual study, the Runet Economy, and said that according to the RAEC, around a third of laws submitted in the parliament in 2016 were met with mixed reaction from experts. On the whole, however, around half of experts concurred that Russia’s 2016 Internet-focused legislation had had positive or a neutral effect.
“The first meeting of the Expert Council for Digital Economy Legislation has shown that rather than discuss existing issues its members will instead focus on new ideas and new legislation that can urgently address the rapid development of new technologies. This focus, I believe, is quite important in order to enable the Internet to develop rapidly and in the right direction, without stifling it with red tape and outdated laws. We have seen a transition to fair dialog between the state and the Internet industry, and that the latter party has been heard,” Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev said.
