The year 2019 may be decisive for entering the rapid digital development path. The Gaidar Forum ended in Moscow

From January 15 to January 17, 2019, the X Gaidar Forum “Russia and the World: National Development Goals and Global Trends” was held in Moscow at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, where a delegation of the Republic of Tatarstan took part with President Rustam Minnikhanov.

Based on the name of the forum in the current year, much attention was paid to implementation of national projects in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 07, 2018 No. 204 “On national goals and strategic objectives of development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024”.

The main event of the Gaidar Forum was the plenary discussion “National Development Goals and Global Trends” with participation of Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

As current challenges, Dmitry Medvedev noted a high level of uncertainty that affects almost all spheres of public life, as well as the speed and scale of digital transformation, the global change in traditional markets and the emergence of new ones. Participants of the discussion noted the need to manage this uncertainty.

In the framework of the panel discussion “National Goals and Social Challenges: the Regional Aspect”, special attention was paid to ensuring the achievement of national goals at the regional level and synchronization of powers and sources of funding. Outcome of the discussion was the assertion of the significance of the trustful dialogue between the Government and the population, people should feel the results of implementation of national projects as quickly as possible.

Open discussion “National Development Goals: Russia's Strategy 2018–2024” continued the discussion of tools for implementation of national goals. Personal responsibility for implementation of each national project, as well as for each of its goals, will be assigned to vice-premiers as curators and ministers as responsible performers. Also, there is such a format of documents as plans for implementation of national goals, which will be broader than national projects.

The problems of delineation of expenditure powers between the center and the regions were touched upon during the discussion “Financial participation of regions in achieving national development goals”.

Within the framework of the forum, a presentation of the rating of innovative regions of Russia took place. Since 2013, the Republic of Tatarstan has traditionally been one of the three leaders in this rating. Following the results of 2018, Tatarstan, for the first time since 2012, moved up to the second position, ahead of Moscow (1st place - St. Petersburg, 2nd place - the Republic of Tatarstan, 3rd place - Moscow).

Strengthening of socio-economic conditions for innovation, active work of organizations involved in technological innovation, as well as an increase in number of scientific research and participation in federal support programs contributed to the success of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2018.

Within the framework of the Gaidar Forum, the National Report on development of high-tech business in the regions of Russia was presented. The main goal of the report is to identify potential points of non-resource growth of the Russian economy. According to the authors of the report, the problem of the low level of introduction of new technologies lies not in the insufficient stimulation of innovative activity, but in the specific features of the structure of the Russian economy, in predominance of low-technology (raw materials) industries.

The year 2019 may be decisive for entering the rapid digital development path. Such was the conclusion reached by the participants of the panel discussion of the forum “The state as a platform: people and technology”. Participants noted that implementation of platform solutions was a fundamental factor in reducing transaction costs and increasing efficiency. Among the tasks for the near future the following were noted: the system of motivation of departments for development of digital processes and integration; ensuring the integration of private operators when interacting with public platform services; providing pass-through digital identification. Poor reaction of universities to market changes in terms of training the required personnel, the problem of state participation in the aspects of regulating the digital integration market were highlighted among the problems.

Within the framework of the expert discussion “Digital Future of Public Administration by Results”, the following areas were highlighted that should be foreseen in the framework of digitalization of public administration by results:

- “Platform for Results” (transition from responsibility of departments for preparation and submission of reports on the results achieved to their responsibility for placement (availability) of data generated mainly automatically on a single platform and decision-making on the basis of these data);

- “Knowledge is power” (expanding the use of “big data” for the purposes of formulating state policy, forming official statistics, administering revenues, auditing budgetary expenditures and implementing other state functions);

- “Farewell to reporting!” (introduction of mechanisms for machine-to-machine interaction and technologies of the Internet of things as an alternative to the reporting of organizations and citizens to government bodies (tax, statistical, etc.);

- “From a traffic light to a spectrum” (extension of performance evaluation methods: transition from binary evaluation “completed - not completed” to the use of predictive analytics, selective controlled tests, other analytical methods based on artificial intelligence technologies);

- “Calculate to optimize” (using digitalization as a tool to optimize budget expenditures: introduction of the practice of calculating transaction costs and assessing their reduction from digitalization).

Changes in criteria for obtaining the status of a single-industry town were discussed in the framework of the panel discussion “New program of support of single-industry towns: key areas for development”. It is planned that the updated list of single-industry towns will be presented in April 2019.

Experts of the panel session “Priorities of transport development: a new quality of life” determined the global trend: agglomeration always develops faster than the city, the city always develops faster than the constituent entity, and the constituent entity always faster than the country. In addition, it is noted that infrastructure development is the most important priority of state policy - the connectivity of regions and cities increases, economic markets unite, and new global cities emerging in Russia will become centers of breakthrough scientific, technological and socio-economic development.

In the framework of the section "Municipal control as a tool for development of the territory" a presentation of a report on the state of municipal control in Russia was made. Participants of the section expressed the opinion that with proper organization, municipal control can be an effective tool for development of the territory and attracting investments. Much more attention should be paid to outreach, prevention of violations. In addition, it is necessary to develop an optimal and effective model of municipal control, taking into account capabilities of different territories.