State corporations and state-owned companies will be required to include research costs in their strategies
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State corporations and state-owned companies will be required to include in their digital transformation strategies indicators related to the costs of design work and research in the field of artificial intelligence, neural interfaces, big data, virtual reality, etc. In this way, the government expects to strengthen control over the efficiency of spending on priority technology projects and avoid duplication. But market participants themselves fear that in the end, on the contrary, they will be forced to invest in certain technologies.
Kommersant got acquainted with the “Methodological recommendations for the digital transformation of state corporations and companies with state participation” developed by the Competence Center for Import Substitution in the Field of Information and Communication Technologies (CCICT) and sent for approval to the Ministry of Digital Development in December.
The document contains a number of innovations, one of which suggests that, from 2024, state-owned companies should include in their strategies indicators related to research and development (R&D) on a number of promising technologies. These include artificial intelligence, machine learning, analysis and storage of large data sets, solutions in the field of virtual and augmented reality, as well as neural interface technologies. In particular, it is necessary to reflect the planned costs of R&D and development with a brief description of the technology and the results of implementation, data on the number of applications for the issuance of patents to state companies in this area, as well as information on the number of software units put on the balance sheet and plans for the commercialization of developments.
The head of TsKIKT Ilya Massukh explained to Kommersant that for now these are recommendations, not requirements. They are needed to “understand the cost structure of state-owned companies and companies with state participation, and in the future to avoid duplication of spending on technology.”
Starting from 2019, state-owned companies must prepare three-year digital transformation strategies so that authorities can assess the “level of digital maturity” and encourage “the implementation of Russian software and electronics on their infrastructure.” The methodological recommendations contain target indicators that should be taken into account – for example, the share of implemented domestic software, radio electronics, etc. Failure to meet the indicators threatens the demotion of the head of the company and the dismissal of the responsible person – the director of digital transformation.
Senior Vice President for IT at Rostelecom, Kirill Menshov, calls new approaches to preparing digital transformation strategies “weighted from the point of view of the interests of the state and business opportunities.” But he admits that the company “will need time to rebuild processes that will allow information about such investments to be presented in an accurate manner.” VEB.RF, Rostec and Dom.RF did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.
However, Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the government agencies, familiar with the content of the new recommendations, looks at them skeptically. He fears that in the end, state-owned companies will simply be “obliged to invest significant funds in R&D in these areas,” which Kommersant’s source considers extremely capital- and knowledge-intensive: “Currently, conducting breakthrough research in the field of AI requires expensive infrastructure and specific competencies that Only Sber and Yandex have it.”
The government really hopes to increase the involvement of state-owned companies in technology development. The secretariat of First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov explained to Kommersant that updating the requirements for strategies is “part of the work to reset the participation of state corporations and state-owned joint stock companies in achieving the goals of technological development and the development of priority technologies, the plans include adjusting the innovative development program, now they are often carried out formally state-owned companies.”
Evgeniy Styrin, head of the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, believes that new requirements may force shareholders and the state to more carefully evaluate investments in R&D and their quality: “Companies that spend little and poorly explain how they develop R&D will be forced under pressure to improve This is the direction.”
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