"Kommersant": Ministry of Digital Development chose software development projects to replace foreign analogues

As Kommersant notes, the authorities promise guaranteed demand to developers, but market participants fear that this may lead to the emergence of monopolists in certain software segments. The publication managed to get acquainted with the "road map" of new system-wide software, approved by the government on December 16.

“Documents were prepared within the framework of industrial competence centers (ICC) and Competence Centers for the development of system-wide and applied software (ICC). Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the Ministry of Digital Finance, the Ministry of Economy and others are named responsible for the implementation of the road map, Kommersant reports.

It is noted that the "road map" is built on the basis of the existing "map" "New communication Internet technologies", which was developed in August 2020 in accordance with the agreement between the government and Rostelecom. In the new document, the list of developers involved in the implementation of the "map" will be expanded, and the list will include such structures as 1C, Kaspersky Lab, VK and the Competence Center for ICT Import Substitution. At the same time, the document does not indicate budgetary sources of financing, it is planned to implement 90 projects through state support - now about 70 projects have been included in the road map.

According to Kommersant's information, Dmitry Chernyshenko's office stressed that the "cards" of NOPO and NIPO ("New Industrial Software") "are open in nature." In this regard, new developers and projects can be added to them. They also explained that the funding will be provided by the federal project "Digital Technologies".

“The amount of budgetary funds is being specified and will be determined when updating the budget parameters for these items,” Dmitry Chernyshenko’s office said.

Among the approved projects is Wink, a service for viewing video content from Rostelecom, where it is planned to develop user-generated content. Previously, the company requested 1.16 billion rubles in the form of loans for these purposes. Altogether, Rostelecom has approved about five projects. VK approved the creation of a Russian game engine, in which it is planned to invest 2.8 billion rubles.

“By 2030, it follows from the documents, 71% of the Russian market for general system and application software will be domestic, the expected revenue from projects will be 211 billion rubles, and the audience of Russian social networks and instant messengers will reach 120 million users,” the source notes.

The Roadmap also provides for the creation by 2023 of an industry venture fund with investment capital of up to 30 billion rubles by 2030. The Foundation for the Development of Internet Initiatives and the Ministry of Digital Development will be responsible for its development. It is planned to allocate 600 million rubles for the management of the venture fund in 2024-2030.

The head of the board of directors of Basalt SPO, the head of the TsKR Operational Systems, Alexei Smirnov, in an interview with Kommersant, noted that most of the projects should be financed by developers, and the Ministry of Digital Development, for its part, will provide a support mechanism in the form of guaranteed demand through an anchor customer. Experts interviewed by the publication believe that the introduction of this mechanism could lead to a budget deficit.

Kommersant also notes that about 80% of the projects submitted to the ICC and the CCR were rejected due to the absence of the customer. The source of the agency in the IT market notes that many structures have requested support for technologies that are already available on the market. He did not rule out that the implementation of the "road map" would lead to the emergence of monopolists in certain areas. In his opinion, if sanctions are eased, Russian customers may again return to foreign software suppliers, leaving domestic developers without orders.