On December 11, 2023, a strategic session “Intellectual maturity of the system of regional executive authorities and local self-government bodies of the Russian Federation” was held in Moscow at the ANO “Digital Economy” site. It discussed the results of assessing the maturity of regional executive authorities in terms of the use of AI technologies in the performance of their functions. The session was attended by representatives of federal and regional authorities, expert organizations, including the Institute of the Information Society (IIS) represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Yuri Hohlov.

In accordance with the message of the President of the Russian Federation following the results of the conference “Journey to the World of Artificial Intelligence 2022”, the National Center for AI Development under the Government of the Russian Federation (NCAID) conducted a study “Intellectual Maturity Index” in 2023, which is an assessment of the level of development and use of AI in economic sectors, social sectors and the public administration system at the federal and regional levels, as well as a pilot in 20 local governments. The methodology for assessing the level of intellectual maturity of the NCAID was based on the DECA methodology for assessing the level of a country digital economy development, elaborated in 2017–2018 by IIS jointly with the World Bank Group and first used in the development of the “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” program. The assessment took place according to groups of indicators related to the production and use of AI, the effects of its use, as well as the factors influencing it (public policy, regulation, personnel, research and development, infrastructure, data, digital trust and security).

To analyze the situation with the development and use of AI in regional executive authorities and local governments, a survey of regional executive authorities from 89 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, including new regions, was conducted. Sergei Nakvasin, director of NCAID, noted: “The study on the intellectual maturity index includes a huge array of initial data, more than 160,000 units obtained as a result of the survey. The survey included over 40 questions, 89 subjects, 18 industries, 55 federal executive authorities and more than 300 local self-governments took part in it. At the end of 2023, the implementation of AI in industries increased by 1.5 times, and next year this figure will also grow. Almost half of organizations develop solutions on their own; organizations note high efficiency from implementation, but there remains a high need for computing power and data to use AI. The next key problem and task is solving the personnel issue; there is a shortage of AI specialists in 62% of regions. To form an objective picture, we have developed an experimental heat map of the use of AI in the regions. in 27 regions we note a leadership level of AI implementation.”

Carrying out such a large-scale study in a short time became possible thanks to the support of federal and regional executive authorities and the cooperation of NCAID with partner organizations, primarily the National Research University Higher School of Economics, RANEPA, the Competence Center of the Federal Project “Artificial Intelligence” (SBER), the Alliance in the field of artificial intelligence, ANO “Digital Economy”, ANO “Expert Coordination Center of the Commissions of the State Council of the Russian Federation”, IIS, Intelligent Analytics, O2Consulting and others.

According to the results of the study, on average in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, only 13% of regional executive authorities use AI, and 32% have already planned the implementation of AI solutions. In 44% of cases, departments characterize the effect from the use of AI as moderate and significant, and the maximum effects from the use of AI are associated with the quality of implementation of administrative processes and the objectivity of the results obtained. Intelligent decision support technologies are most in demand among regional and municipal authorities, while the distribution of companies developing AI products throughout the country is uneven – in many regions no more than 10 companies are registered. 71% of regions report having data centers to perform basic machine learning tasks, although not everywhere these capacities are sufficient to perform all tasks. Access to data for AI use is lacking in 88% of regions. Strategies for the development and use of AI are not developed in 91% of regions, but more than 70% of regions have documents at the subject level containing separate sections dedicated to the development of AI.

The leader in the use of AI is Moscow. The top regions with the highest level of AI maturity include the Moscow Region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Voronezh Region, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Rostov Region, the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Chelyabinsk Region, the Altai Territory, the Sakhalin Region, the Tyumen Region, Republic of Mari El.

The picture of the development and application of AI technologies in Russian regions reflects heterogeneity and differences in the level of technological training and availability of resources. This creates a digital divide between developed and less developed regions in understanding, using and implementing innovative AI solutions.

The study identified typical problems that regions face when implementing AI: lack of necessary digital infrastructure, lack of specialists with the necessary competencies, lack or absence of available technological solutions on the market and problems with data (low quality and/or insufficiency).

When preparing the material, we used the source:
https://d-economy.ru/news/cifrovaja-jevoljucija-kak-iskusstvennyj-intellekt-preobrazhaet-regiony/

The fifth issue of the scientific and analytical journal “Information Society” for 2023 has been published.

The main theme of the release is “The human in the information society”. It is revealed in 15 articles devoted to the following:

Smart city and related political and informational risks
Social value of data
Virtual collaboration
Modern practices of media consumption
Cyberethnicity as a modern form of cultural self-organization
Progressive hybrid learning technologies
Training of “digital workers”
Artificial intelligence against corruption
Digital diasporas in networks
Digital security monitoring

In her address to readers, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Tatiana Ershova wrote:

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The current issue of our journal is rich in articles under the heading “The human in the information society,” and this cannot but rejoice. The magazine has been in existence for 34 years and regularly addresses various aspects of the impact of technology on human life in all its manifestations. However, only at the end of 2008 the editorial board decided to allocate a special section to discuss this problem. It was called “Information society: people”, and in the double issue 5-6 six articles were published at once, discussing the topics of consumption of ICT products, human development, tolerance, as well as information culture, and creativity.

In 2009, the column was launched to be called “Humanitarian aspects of the development of the information society,” and in the first issue five articles were published, which continued the consideration of the mentioned problems, and also included topics of humanitarian computer science and the influence of the Internet on the lives of older people. The column gained a foothold, but for almost five years only seven articles were published in it. Given their small number, one cannot fail to note the seriousness of the issues considered in them: the phenomenon of euthanasia from the standpoint of global sociocultural and information and communication transformations; the crisis in the consciousness of modern human; the transformation of the model of reality; multirational communication, etc. And issue 1 for 2011 contained materials of the international panel discussion “Information Society: Humanitarian Aspects of Modernization”, held on October 15, 2010 at the V Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of the CIS Member States “Innovative and Humanitarian Partnership – the Basis of the Dynamic Development of the CIS Countries.” They all were published in full.

The release of the last issue in 2013 was marked by a new renaming of the humanitarian section. Now it has become known as “The human in the information society”, and has existed in this form for almost 10 years. Since then, it has published 34 articles, which means that there were no more than four such articles per year. A little better than in the previous five-year period, but still clearly not enough for a journal open to philosophers, sociologists, historians, lawyers, psychologists, cultural experts, art historians, and political scientists.

Of course, further attention deserves research into the anthropological crisis of civilization, dehumanization and alienation of communication in the era of globalization, transformation of human thinking and behavior, information consumerism, information disorientation, the impact of information and various computer programs on the human psyche and behavior, information wars, social support for vulnerable groups population with the help of digital technologies, the development of human capital in the information society, network interaction and its various manifestations (from useful to dangerous), the influence of artificial intelligence on people’s lives, the role of natural intelligence in the context of digital transformation, the relationship between technology and humans, and many others.

We look forward to articles on humanitarian topics from our regular and new authors.

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The contents of the issue (in Russian) are available on the journal’s digital platform.

September 28, 2023 Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (REU) held a design and consulting seminar on the development of human resources in the field of artificial intelligence.

The event was organized by the REU Higher School of Cyber Technologies, Mathematics and Statistics and the Department of State Policy in the Sphere of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.

The seminar was opened by the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Dmitry Afanasyev. He set priorities for improving the quality of education and increasing the volume of graduate training in the field of artificial intelligence, and set tasks for the work of the design and consulting seminar.

Nikita Yakunov, a representative of the Department of strategic development and innovation of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, reported on the need for personnel for the mass implementation of artificial intelligence as one of the challenges of the National AI Development Strategy.

Soslan Gabuev, Deputy Director of the Department for the development of artificial intelligence and big data of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, spoke about the impossibility of developing artificial intelligence without training specialists in the field of big data.

Yuri Hohlov, head of the department of the National Center for the Development of Artificial Intelligence under the Government of the Russian Federation, chairman of the board of directors of the Institute of the Information Society, full member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, emphasized the importance of training for the development and use of AI in the economy, social sphere and public administration.

Mikhail Skvirsky, managing director, head of the Data research center for government bodies of Sberbank PJSC, representative of the Alliance in the field of AI, presented the tasks of the updated national AI development strategy in terms of personnel training.

The discussion of new approaches to training in the field of artificial intelligence took place in the format of project work with the active participation of representatives of leading universities: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (national research university), National Research University ITMO, Lomonosov Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, National Research Tomsk State University, Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Cherepovets State University, Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, Don State Technical University, Volgograd State Technical University, Ulyanovsk State Technical University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University (national research university), Southern Federal University, Petrozavodsk State University.

The seminar participants identified the main tasks of developing human resources in the field of artificial intelligence:

• Training industry specialists with artificial intelligence competencies.
• Regular updating of educational programs on artificial intelligence taking into account the speed of development of artificial intelligence technologies.
• Support measures aimed at involving company employees and leading university lecturers in the educational process.
• Improving the quality of education through regular training of lecturers and involving representatives of real sector companies in this process.
• Forming a “background” through improving the quality of teaching mathematics and computer science in schools, developing additional education for schoolchildren in the field of mathematics and computer science.
• Raising general awareness of artificial intelligence technologies.
• Creating conditions for continuous education in terms of developing competencies in the use of AI.

Source: REU

The New Izvestia newspaper, in order to prepare the article “Closing the Gaps: Why the Introduction of Electronic Сonscription Тotifications is Postponed Until 2025,” which was published on September 20, 2023, turned to several experts for comments, including Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of IIS Board of Directors, full member of the Russian Academy of Engineering.

Yu. Hohlov emphasizes how difficult it is to provide the Ministry of Defense with access to the relevant electronic register and create the necessary secure communication channels. In this regard, the Ministry of Digital Development believes that electronic notifications will not be introduced until 2025.

Source: New Izvestia

On September 7, 2023, the Institute of the Information Society celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The area of ​​professional activity of IIS is research, analytics and consulting, legislative, publishing and educational activities on a wide range of problems of information society and knowledge economy, as well as R&D and system integration in the field of creating modern information technologies, including design and implementation of different ICT solutions from the infrastructure level to the level of applied expert systems.

The institute’s customers are federal and regional authorities, federal scientific foundations, large commercial companies, state unitary enterprises, state institutions, universities, research institutes (including the RAS systems), non-profit organizations, international organizations.

The IIS achievements list includes a number of major projects: conceptual and methodological documents of national and international significance; projects for the development, implementation and examination of projects related to the electronic development of Russian regions; analytical reports on the readiness of Russia and its regions for the information society, which have been published regularly since 2001.

In total, the Institute has held more than a hundred events at the regional, national and international levels, published over 30 books on a range of problems of the information society.

Since 1999, the Institute, together with the Russian Engineering Academy, has been the publisher of the scientific and analytical journal “Information Society”, the only publication in Russia that comprehensively and systematically covers the problems of the information society development. In 2010, the journal was included in the List of leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and publications, approved by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, and in 2015 it confirmed its status. Also, since 2015, the journal has been included in the Russian Science Citation Index on the Web of Science platform.

Leading experts of the institute have participated in the implementation of a number of initiatives promoting the use of ICT for comprehensive development in Russia, in particular: Public Expert Council of the Moscow City Duma in the direction of “Information, Informatization, Communications, Telecommunications and Television” (1998-2001), then transformed into the Public Expert Council of the Moscow City Duma on the Development of the Information Society (2002-2006); Council under the President of Russia for the Development of the Information Society (2009-2012); expert council under the Government of the Russian Federation (2014-2018); Council for Digital Transformation of ANO “Digital Economy”; the working groups of ANO “Digital Economy” on digital governance and artificial intelligence; subcommittee “Data” (PC 02) as part of the Technical Committee for Standardization “Artificial Intelligence” (TC 164) on the basis of RVC, etc.

Institute leaders at the highest expert level participated in international initiatives, including The Global Bangemann Challenge (1998-1999), then converted to the Stockholm Challenge (2000-2010); Global Junior Challenge (1999-2009); The Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) (2000-2001); UN ICT Task Force (2002-2005); Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) (2006-2012); WSIS Action Line C7 e-Government of the action plan for the implementation of the decisions of the World Summit on the Information Society (2012-2017); Working Group on the Measurement and Evaluation Tool for E-Participation Readiness (METEP), formed by the Division of Governance and Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2013-2015), etc.

The Institute today employs people of various specialties, ages and nationalities. They constitute a powerful intellectual and creative union of like-minded people, thanks to which the Institute was able to overcome all difficulties and become a recognized “expert of the first choice”, an independent leader of Russia in the development of the information society. We congratulate all IIS employees and partners on the 25th anniversary of the company and wish you all good health, good mood and enduring faith in success!

The issue is dedicated to the memory of Viktor Glushkov in connection with his 100th birthday.

In a traditional address to readers, editor-in-chief Tatiana Ershova writes:

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On August 24, 1923, in Rostov-on-Don, the pioneer of computer science and cybernetics, the ideologist of the digital state, Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov was born in the family of a mining engineer.

Based on the works of N. Wiener, K. Shannon, A. I. Kitov, A. A. Lyapunov and other scientists, V. M. Glushkov formed his own understanding of cybernetics as a scientific discipline, which he interpreted broadly – as a science of general patterns, principles and methods of information processing and management of complex systems. This understanding was reflected in the world’s first “Encyclopedia of Cybernetics”, prepared on the initiative of V. M. Glushkov and published in 1974 under his editorship.

V. M. Glushkov paid much attention to the creation of automated control systems (ACS), was the main ideologist and one of the main creators of the ACS industry in the USSR. Applied developments of V. M. Glushkov and his school covered a wide range of areas of application.

In 1962, on the instructions of A. N. Kosygin, then the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, V. M. Glushkov began the development of a project for the National Automated System for Collecting and Processing Information for Accounting, Planning and Management of the National Economy (OGAS). He proposed the concept of OGAS as a single system that implements the principles of program-target management and intersectoral balance using scenario modeling. In fact, it was a prototype of the digital state that the USSR could become. But the OGAS project met with sharp objections from the leadership of the Central Statistical Bureau of the USSR, then it was being revised for a long time, but has never been implemented. There were many reasons for this, and the main one was the resistance of the social system itself, which was not ready for a breakthrough development of this kind.

At the dawn of the information society, he promoted the ideas of artificial intelligence and digital immortality. His students and followers successfully develop his ideas and are engaged in research on structural pattern recognition, methods of syntactic analysis of images and speech signals, methods of structural analysis of scenes in the field of view of robots, are engaged in neurocomputer technologies and medical information systems. However, as before, many ideas of V. M. Glushkov are waiting for their implementation.

For his great contribution to the development of science and technology and the application of these achievements, V. M. Glushkov received well-deserved recognition and a large number of awards both at home and abroad. He was active internationally, and one of his activities was the role of adviser to the UN Secretary-General on cybernetics and computing and their use in developing countries.

We dedicate this issue of the journal to the blessed memory of V. M. Glushkov, an outstanding son of our people.

The IIS leader took part in several events of the international scientific and technical forum “ARMY-2023”.

Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, full member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, together with Tatyana Pakholko, Vice President of the Moscow Association of Entrepreneurs, member of the Interdepartmental Working Group of the Collegium of the Military Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation on Diversification, co-moderated the round table “Industrial Infrastructure Development. Technological readiness. New Opportunities”, which took place on August 15, 2023.

The subject of discussion was the development of the industrial infrastructure of Russian regions and the use of the achievements of digital transformation at the regional level. The discussion was attended by representatives of regional executive authorities, state corporations, industrial enterprises of the defense industry and public organizations.

Among the speakers were the Minister of Industry, New Technologies and Natural Resources of the Chelyabinsk Region Pavel Ryzhiy and the Director of the Chelyabinsk Region Industry Development Fund Sergey Kazakov; the Director of the Association of Clusters, Technoparks and Special Economic Zones of Russia Mikhail Labudin; the Director of the Biomedical Union Mikhail Losev; the Leading Engineer of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” – Central Research Institute of structural materials “Prometheus” Oleg Glibenko and others.

On August 16, 2023, within the framework of the Congress “Strategic Leadership and Artificial Intelligence Technologies”, which traditionally takes place within the framework of the ARMY Forum, a meeting of the section “Artificial Intelligence Technologies: From Science to Practice” was held, at which the results and prospects for implementation of AI technologies in order to create synergy between business, science and education were discussed.

The event was attended by 18 speakers, including Natalya Kasperskaya, President of the InfoWatch Group of Companies; Anatoly Vasserman, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation; Alexei Semenov, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Mathematical Logic and Theory of Algorithms at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and President of the RUSSOFT Association Valentin Makarov . The event was moderated by Vice-Rector for Science of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University Vladimir Nelyub.

The speakers paid special attention to the challenges and risks of the development and use of AI, the need for close cooperation between researchers, developers and consumers of AI-based products, including the necessity to ensure the sovereignty and technological leadership of the Russian Federation in this area. The problems of training and retaining IT specialists in the country under sanctions in order to create import-independent domestic solutions based on AI that are not inferior or superior to foreign counterparts in terms of technical characteristics were noted.

Yuri Hohlov made a presentation on “The landscape of international standardization of artificial intelligence”, emphasizing the importance and need for the formation of national standardization in the field of AI, which allows the transfer of accumulated knowledge and successful practices in the creation and use of AI systems.

Another session of the Congress “Strategic Leadership and Artificial Intelligence Technologies”, held on August 18, 2023, was devoted to the legal regulation of AI technologies, including discussion of the subject of the upcoming draft federal law on artificial intelligence.

The discussion participants focused on the problems that should be resolved in the future law, balancing the interests of government, business and citizens, developers and consumers of AI products, taking into account the specifics of using AI in various fields of activity.

Among the speakers were Senator of the Federation Council Konstantin Dolgov, Director of the National Center for the Development of Artificial Intelligence under the Government of the Russian Federation Sergey Nakvasin, Managing Director of the AI Regulation Center of Sberbank Andrey Neznamov, President of the RUSSOFT Association Valentin Makarov, Head of the Department of the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia Veronika Strogoleva, Director of the Department of Regulatory and methodological support of the Federal Center for Applied Development of Artificial Intelligence Andrey Chukarin and others.

The third issue of the scientific and analytical journal “Information Society” for 2023 has been published.

The main theme of the release is “Interaction of human and technology”. It is revealed in 13 articles devoted to the following:
Again, about the essence of the information society
Existential landscape of human-machine interaction
Hate speech on social media
Digitalization of Russian regions and interregional cooperation
Cryptocurrencies as a new form of money
Telecommunication market today
Standardization of data technologies for AI
Crop protection robots
Digital transformation in China
Use of quantum technologies in the USA

In her address to readers, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Tatiana Ershova wrote:

The first article in this issue, written by MSU professor Tamara Naumenko, examines the paradigm foundations of the information society theory. This made me remember the very beginning of our activities to promote the development of the information society in Russia at the end of the last century or, if you like, the millennium. We wondered why seemingly reasonable people resisted it so much. But over the years, things have become clearer.

Our opponents were patriotic people. It was exactly what puzzled us: don’t we want Russia’s good, don’t we want its powerful development? It was very difficult to prove that we were not eager to sell our country out to the West. It was necessary to explain long and hard that no one can build a modern economy without the use of new technologies. And since, due to wrong decisions, we have missed the opportunity to independently create technologies and equipment on a par with the West, why not to use what we already have and what we can buy for our own purposes? Of course, in parallel it was possible and necessary to create our own technologies, and on a serious scale. And those who called for the information society were certainly not responsible for the fact that this did not happen.

It is surprising that people did not believe us for a long time and stubbornly could not understand that we are in the same system of values with them, that we are carriers of the same paradigm, if the latter is understood in a broad sense as a worldview, or way of thinking. We actively participated in the most prestigious international events and projects in order to keep abreast of everything most interesting and useful, and then we came home and tried to promote the most advanced experience in our country, taking into account its peculiarities. We also organized major events in Russia: the annual conference “Information Society Technologies”, “Tver Forum”, as well as many round tables and seminars, to which we invited well-known Russian and foreign experts, true leaders of the information society.

One of such events was the international conference “Global Knowledge – Russia. Partner Networks as Instruments for the Development of the Information Society and the Knowledge Economy”, which took place in Moscow on December 9, 2002. It brought together more than 100 representatives of the state, business, civil society, the scientific and educational community from 19 countries of the world. Here, for the first time, the preparation of the national strategy “Russia in the Information Age” was announced, about which the First Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for Communications and Informatization A.V. Korotkov (blessed memory of him), spoke in detail. A document under this title was not approved, however, but as a result of its discussion, a certain new concept of “informational development of the country” arose. The next version of the document, called the “National Strategy for Informational Development”, already set “advanced informational development” as a major task.

On February 7, 2008, the long epic ended: thanks to the active support of the Security Council, the Presidential Decree approved the “Information Society Development Strategy”, which fully took into account Russia’s national interests. Common sense finally prevailed, and a lot of ICT4D work began countrywide. It actively continues to this day, only now with an emphasis on the use of digital technologies.

On June 15, 2023, the Department for the Development of Artificial Intelligence of the Russian Ministry of Defense held a meeting of the Directorate on the formation of a regulatory framework and the training of highly qualified personnel in the field of artificial intelligence.

The meeting was attended by representatives of more than thirty enterprises of the defense industry, scientific and educational organizations of the Russian Ministry of Defense and military authorities.

The meeting discussed the development of standards in the field of artificial intelligence at the international and national levels, the relevance of developing a methodology, technology and software for a domestic integrated intelligent decision support system for the use of subordinate troops (forces) in armed conflicts, as well as making changes to educational master’s and specialist’s higher education programs and professional retraining programs for military specialists in the field of artificial intelligence technologies in June 2023.

During the event, the participants discussed the development of national standards governing the terminology and classification of systems with artificial intelligence, the need to use artificial intelligence in modeling complex dynamic systems, proposals for amending the educational programs of higher education for master’s and specialist’s programs and professional retraining programs for military specialists in the field of AI technology.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Development of the Information Society, Chairman of Subcommittee “Data” of the Technical Committee on Standardization “Artificial Intelligence” (TC 164) Yuri Hohlov made a presentation “International and national standardization in the field of artificial intelligence”.

As a result of the meeting, experts made proposals for the development of modeling systems with artificial intelligence, for personnel training and the formation of a regulatory framework in the field of artificial intelligence technologies.

Source: Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Dear colleagues, partners, friends!

May 17 has been World Telecommunication Day since 1969. This day was established by the Plenipotentiary Conference held in Malaga Torremolinos in 1973 to commemorate the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865.

In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called on the UN General Assembly to designate 17 May as World Information Society Day to highlight the importance of ICT for development and to focus on a wide range of issues related to the information society. In March 2006, the General Assembly adopted resolution 60/252, which established that World Information Society Day should be celebrated annually on 17 May.

In November 2006, at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya (Turkey), it was decided to celebrate May 17 as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The updated resolution 60/252 invites Member States and sector members to commemorate this day every year through the organization of appropriate national programs.

The theme of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2023 is “Empowering Least Developed Countries through Information and Communication Technologies”. ITU, where Russia’s positions have traditionally been strong, is calling on the public and private sectors to commit to universal connectivity and digital transformation in these countries through its Partner2Connect digital coalition. ITU notes that investments in these young, dynamic countries can provide sustainable growth for generations.

We hope that ICT will be an effective instrument of development, not colonization. We strongly stand for a fair information society. Happy holiday!