MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Communications Ministry has developed a number of measures to support domestically produced substitutes for imported software, the newspaper Vedomosti reported Tuesday, citing the department’s letter to the Ministry of Industry.
"The department proposes to establish a 15 percent price preference in the procurement of domestic software. If the foreign software is purchased while it has domestic counterparts, it will be necessary to write a justification and post it on a public portal," Vedomosti reported, citing the letter by the Communications Ministry.
Additionally, to support domestic produce the ministry has offered to provide the minimum quotas for the federal, regional and local authorities. State-owned companies and state agencies, according to the letter, will have to report to the Ministry of Communications about the proportion of international and domestic IT-products used in their work.
In August, the head of the Communications Ministry Nikolai Nikiforov said that his department is preparing measures for substitution of imported software, and that such measures can be implemented within three to seven years.
Various projects aimed at creating infrastructure that would make Russia independent of the Western countries have begun to spring up after the sanctions introduced by the United States due to the situation in Ukraine. The sanctions have demonstrated the dependence of some sectors of the Russian economy from the Western produce.
For instance, when Visa and MasterCard suspended processing payments at Russia’s SMP and Rossiya banks, it was decided to establish the National Card Payment System (NCPS).
