Mishustin criticized “passivity of some large industrialists” in import substitution of IT

The total volume of IT solutions sold and IT services rendered in Russia in 2022 reached 2 trillion rubles, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on June 1 at the plenary session of the Digital Industry of Industrial Russia (CIPR) conference in Nizhny Novgorod.

“This is a good trend,” the prime minister commented on the amount. The gross value added of these projects amounted to 1.9 trillion rubles, which is 23% more than in 2021. The number of employees employed in the IT sector increased by 12.7% to 740,000 people, and the average monthly salary of these employees amounted to 135,500 rubles . (growth by 18.6%), indicated in the presentation that accompanied Mishustin’s speech.

According to the prime minister, the demand for certain domestic software products in 2022, according to expert estimates, increased by 10-12 times. “There is no doubt that it will continue to grow. This is a serious challenge for software development companies, of which there are up to 22,000. And they are actively restructuring their activities, taking into account current realities,” Mishustin noted.

The head of government also summed up the interim results of the activities of the Industrial Competence Centers (ICCs) – industry consortiums, which included representatives of the largest industrial and IT companies. Their activities were aimed at the fastest possible import substitution of foreign software in the Russian Federation. Now there are 33 such consortiums operating in the country, the prime minister noted. For all sectors of import substitution, they identified “more than a thousand foreign decisions that directly affect the stability of production processes,” Mishustin continued. Of these, only one sixth had no analogues in the Russian Federation.

“In the most popular areas, the development of universal software has been organized. In total, about 160 such projects were approved. Their total cost exceeds 210 billion rubles. And only 10% of this amount is financed by federal grants,” Mishustin said.

Among the leading companies in terms of their own financing of IT development, the Prime Minister named state-owned “Aeroflot“,”Rosatom“,”Inter RAO” And Russian Railways. The total volume of their investments in IT development amounted to more than 40 billion rubles, follows from his presentation.

Mishustin also listed outsider industries in terms of IT import substitution. “These are pharmaceuticals, trade, food and processing industry, and crop production. We, despite the fact that we supported their projects last year, have not yet seen the implementation, it has not started,” the prime minister said. He added that for these projects, even agreements on grants for software development have not yet been signed.

“Honestly, I am sincerely surprised by the passive position of some large industrialists. Apparently, they believe that they will live on foreign solutions for many years. Colleagues, let’s have no illusions: it’s simply impossible to sit out,” the Prime Minister said.

Speaking about the new measures that the state is taking to develop the IT sector in Russia, Mishustin noted the decision to create the status of systemically important developers who will receive orders for public procurement without competitive selection. The prime minister also announced the decision to create industry venture funds to finance startups in IT. Both of these ideas were described in detail by Vedomosti on May 30.

“Another measure – we are considering an initiative that introduces mandatory deductions for organizations for the use of foreign software – before, accordingly, the transition to domestic solutions,” Mishustin said. According to him, half of this amount can be directed to grant support for Russian IT companies, and the second part will form a collateral for their preferential lending. Vedomosti reported on the development of this initiative in mid-May.

“Passivity is now more destructive than ever, and bold, extraordinary initiatives are required that will help our country reach a high level of digital maturity in the shortest possible time,” Mishustin said at the end of his speech.