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PM calls for broader use of electronic document management technologies

In his opinion, while 20 years ago computer literacy was something exotic, now it is a requirement

MOSCOW, November 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for using electronic document management technologies in the government.

“Documents should be managed electronically and regulatory acts should eventually be issued in electronic form too,” Medvedev said at a meeting with tax service employees on Monday, November 19.

“A part of documents, a very small part, should probably be duplicated on paper, but these are exclusive things such as laws, presidential decrees or government resolutions, for history, so to speak,” he said.

Documents for regions should not be issued on paper at all, the prime minister added.

Medvedev recalled his own words, said some time ago, that “A public servant who is not capable of creating an electronic document or who is afraid of stating a computer is to be dismissed from public service.”

In his opinion, while 20 years ago computer literacy was something exotic, now it is a requirement.

He stressed that “the absolute majority of people can do it. The question is how to encourage them”.

Medvedev stressed earlier that electronic document management reduces corruption dramatically.

As an example, he cited Singapore and recalled that during his visit to that country he had registered a Russian restaurant when testing the electronic public service system ay its presentation.

“You believe and you don’t believe it at the presentation: I sat there for five minutes, typed in some information, got everything done, and they said 'Good buy' to us. Naturally, I forgot it in ten minutes. But four or five months later, one high-ranking civil servant came up to me and asked: Were you in Singapore? Did you open a restaurant there? Use it,” Medvedev recalled.

He said he had received a notice from Singapore, telling him of the opening of the restaurant there.

“It [electronic document management system] works, not because I am the president of the Russian Federation, but because all this got into the system that operates irrespective of the will and wishes of Singaporean and Russian government officials,” he said.