BANGKOK, November 3. /TASS/. Russia is one of the five leading countries in the world in the number of smartphone users, while unlimited Internet in the country is several times cheaper than in a number of developed countries, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said speaking at the Business and Investment Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday.
"Russia, like other countries, is looking for ways to adjust to the new economic reality. On the digital world map, Russia ranks seventh in terms of people's involvement in the digital economy, and as for the number of smartphone users we are on the fifth place," he said.
"We are intensively developing communications infrastructure - over 85% of the population of our country uses the opportunities associated with mobile Internet, and approximately 70% of adult Russians do this every day. Among developed states, we have very affordable unlimited traffic - it costs nine times less than in Japan, 14 [times] cheaper than in the US and 17 [times cheaper] than in the Republic of Korea," Medvedev noted.
He stressed that the government is also working on wider introduction of digital technologies in public administration.
"Of course, we pay special attention to cybersecurity," Medvedev added.
The Prime Minister stressed that Russia traditionally has "very strong schools of mathematics, physics, information technology."
"Such IT giants as Google, Apple, Huawei are fighting for Russian specialists. Of course, this also gives certain results," Medvedev stated.
However, he continued, Russia, like other countries, "has something to work on." He recalled that since 2017, the country has been implementing the Digital Economy national program, which is aimed at eliminating the digital divide between different parts of the country, forming accessible information infrastructure.