Page 94 - RUSRptSept18

9.1.7 TMT sector news
Details emerging on planned Big Data Association. Six companies are in line to be the founders of a new Big Data Association in Russia: Megafon, Mail.ru, Tinkoff Bank, Yandex, Sberbank, and analytics company oneFactor, Vedomosti reports. Megafon Chief Operating Officer Anna Serebryanikova is likely to become the president. The association’s goals will be to set rules for data exchange on the market and interaction with foreign data owners and startups, define ethical codes, and serve as an expert platform for the government. A government-industry working group has already begun working on draft legislation. The shape of regulation on big data still a wide-open field in Russia.
Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group is in "advanced negotiation stage" for an e-commerce joint venture in Russia with internet major Mail.ru and the state sovereign wealth fund , the Russian Fund for Direct Investment (RDIF), Interfax and Vedomosti d aily reported on August 24 citing unnamed sources. Reportedly RDIF and Alibaba are potential investors into Mail.ru Group's online commerce business.
Russia's government is budgeting RUB1.2 trillion ($18bn) of spending in 2019-2024 for implementing the national 'Digital Economy' roadmap , Vedomosti d aily reported on August 20 citing internal memos of the Finance Ministry. Following the Kremlin's urge to prioritise the development of IT and other new technologies, the government started a special working group in 2017 that developed a list of initiatives to facilitate the rollout of the Digital Economyprogramme .TheinitiativewasfurtherexpandedinP resident's Vladimir Putin's May Decree . However, so far out of RUB1.2 trillion a little over RUB120bn for 2019-2021 has actually been funded, according to Vedomosti. For 2018 the spending on the roadmap is set at negligible RUB8.4bn. The sources for non-budget and private investment in the program are still not determined. Reportedly digital infrastructure, such as communication networks, data centres, 5G networks rollout, etc is the top-spending item in the plan with RUB628bn. Previously Russian state-controlled integrated telecom major Rostelecom estimated the cost of Digital Economy information technology infrastructure at RUB427bn for the next three years . The government reportedly plans to spend RUB233bn for IT public governance and supervision solutions, RUB139bn for human resources and training, RUB125bn for new technology development (AI, Big Data, quantum tech), only RUB18bn for digital security, and RUB1.5bn for developing the legal and regulatory base.
Laws on net neutrality principles obliging Internet service providers to treat all data equally without discrimination or varied speed and not to
94 RUSSIA Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com