OREANDA-NEWS. May 24, 2011. On May 23 in the Government of the republic Head of Karelia Andrei Nelidov has held a meeting with Vladimir Akulich, Vice-President, Director of the North-West Branch of Rostelecom. Igor Usynin, Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia and Minister of Finance, Valentin Luntsevich, Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia and Minister of Economic Development, Vladimir Solovov, acting Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Karelia for Information and Communication Technology Development, Ella Tomilina, Deputy Director of the North-West Branch of Rostelecom, Eduard Tumashevsky, Director of the Karelian Branch of Rostelecom, and others have also attended the meeting.

The parties have discussed the course of implementation of the e-Government project in our republic. The decision of the Government of Russia has made Rostelecom the only executing agency concerning activities of the e-Russia federal target program regarding design, generation and operation of infrastructure of the e-Government, and a national operator of infrastructure of the e-Government.

Last November the Government of Karelia and Rostelecom have concluded the agreement of cooperation intending to provide processing compatibility of regional subsystems with the federal segment of the e-Government. First of all, it concerns search for solutions of transition of services rendered by regional and municipal authorities into the electronic form. At the meeting matters concerned the first results of cooperation and specific opportunities of Rostelecom's participation in deleopment of the e-Government in territory of the region.

Granting services electronically is developing in Karelia since 1993 when the first informatization program was approved in the republic. Today Karelian portal of the state services offers 115 items, of which 14 are federal and 101 are regional services. Telemedicine develops actively in the republic, the Republic of Karelia's official Internet Portal has an e-Reception Room, there one may receive all kinds of information concerning different spheres of activity of the authority.

The federal Internet portal www.gosuslugi.ru provides necessary assistabce or consultation concerning delivery of the state services of the federal level, like, for example, in issuance of the passport or filling in the tax declaration. The current task is to match these electronic resources to provide their coordinated work.

Besides, according to the plan approved by the Government of Russia, the number of the state services rendered to the citizens electronically should grow. In the long term with the help of their computers citizens of the republic will be able to submit applications to various instances, trace stages the document passes in bodies of the government, control receipt of compensations for payment of housing and communal services, receive a building permit or a medical practice license, or book an appointment with a doctor.

To make it all real and also to make these services available even for residents of distant settlements of Karelia it is necessary to have developed and reliable communication lines. Rostelecom is the company possessing broad experience in construction of main high-speed networks of the new generation, and it is capable of rendering proper assistance in solution of this task.

– In development of the e-Government we consider its maximal convenience to the population a priority, first of all, the so-called 'one contact' principle, – Head of Karelia Andrei Nelidov has pointed out at the meeting. – When we speak of modernization, the most evident criteria is how every person may benefit from it in each specific case. This is what we also should concentrate our efforts on.