The aim of the project is to provide more Russians with access to broadband Internet, 3G and 4G, and other telecommunications.
Among other targets are development of Russia’s IT market, promotion of Internet safety, and further simplifying the interaction between citizens and the state through e-government.
“The Information Society project is aimed at making life easier for regular citizens and providing them with new opportunities,” said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “The maximum number of citizens should have Internet access. This will eliminate queuing at state institutions, as many services will be available online.”
Ivan Zasursky, editor-in-chief of "Private Correspondent" newspaper, told RT that the new project will help Russia overcome the so-called digital divide: while one part of the country is already living in the information society, the other part does not even know about it.
Overall, it will cost Russia 88 billion rubles from the federal budget, 50 billion annually from regional sources, and 200 billion from private companies – in total, $11 billion.
The new project is to be fully implemented by 2020.
In fact, the idea of such a society is half a century old – it was first drafted in the 1960s. In addition, just recently billions of rubles were spent on an e-government project which failed.
“It was a utopian project,” Zasursky told RT. “The wrong people were doing it for the wrong reasons. There was no proper injection into research. Most of the money was not even spent.”
State officials are afraid that the same fate could await the new project.
“Honestly, we won’t be able to achieve most of the results the project sets,” Yury Khohklov, head of Institution of Information Society Development, was quoted as saying by the Kommersant newspaper.
---
Quelle/Source: RT, 01.10.2010
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
