OREANDA-NEWS. February 22, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) held a meeting of its Expert Council on Developing Competition in Information Technologies in order to identify the problems in the IT-industry and make proposals, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Expert Council heard the reports of “RUSSOFT” Non-Commercial Partnership, “1С” CJSC, “Speech Technology Centre” Ltd., “SPIRIT Corp.” Ltd., “Intel” CJSC, “AMD International Sales and Service”, “Hewlett-Packard” CJSC, and the “Coordination Centre for TDL RU”.

One of the main issues was definition of equivalence in state procurement of computer facilities with microprocessors and motherboards and state procurement of components, spare parts and expendables.

Based on the discussion, the Expert Council decided that the FAS Russia’s Department for State Procurement, interested members of the Expert Council with participation of the Department of Information Technologies should draft recommendations, guided by which procuring organisations will be able to avoid violating the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and the Federal Law “On State and Municipal Procurement of Goods, Works and Services”.

The Expert Council also discussed the issues of coordination of the work of domain name registrars and whether their registration should be a public or a government function. The Director of the “Coordination Centre for TDL RU”, Mr. Kolesnikov, emphasised: experience of developing Russian segment of the Internet in comparison with other counties shows that public administration of domain zones is more efficient that the government one. At the same time, participants of the meeting of the Expert Council expressed their common position that the government must be involved in some issues related to development of domain zones. However, it is necessary to specify the rights and responsibilities of the government officials and clarify the grounds for vetoing decisions of autonomous non-commercial organizations, limiting them to the aspects of security and competition upon an appropriate presentation by FAS Russia. The “Coordination Centre for TDL RU” supports this strategy by entering into a long-term agreement with the Ministry of Communications.

The Expert Council discussed the government policy towards advancing Russia’s position on the global high-tech markets, support of small and medium IT businesses and training Russian IT-specialists. According to the experts, support and development of information technologies around the world takes place with involvement of the national leadership. In Russia support to the IT-industry is also provided at the top-level – by the President of the Russian Federation and the Prime-Minister. The problems arise with regard to specific forms and methods of support and particular organisations and government agencies.

Representatives of the companies, who addressed the Expert Council, paid special attention to a number of problems related to adverse conditions of their activities. In some cases Russian IT-companies experience difficulties trying to export their products. For instance, the existing financial mechanisms for export support are applicable primarily to the large companies in traditional sectors of the economy. It is questionable whether implementing the Regional Programmes for support of small business help resolving general problems of export by innovative sectors of the economy. Another pressing issue remains the lack of skilled personnel.

The Expert Council decided to summarize proposals and consider forwarding them to the interested bodies and organizations.