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Subsidies to IT projects in Russian regions will total 20 bln rubles ($310 mln) until 2021

This includes 5 bln rubles ($78 mln) this year

KEMEROVO, September 14. /TASS/. Total amount of subsidies to support regional IT projects by the end of 2021 will amount to 20 bln rubles ($310 mln) until 2021, Dmitry Kryukov, head of the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT), said on Saturday.

This includes 5 bln rubles ($78 mln) this year, 6 bln rubles ($93 mln) in 2020, 9 bln rubles ($139 mln) in 2021, he specified.

The funds will be allocated as part of the federal program of support for regional IT projects for the implementation and replication of end-to-end digital technologies.

This program will be launched by the end of September, Kryukov said.

"Five billion rubles [will be allocated] for this year. <...> We are launching [the program] in emergency mode, recently we have launched a portal where one can file an application directly," Kryukov said.

Alexei Boiko, Director of the RFRIT Grant Financing Department, explained that the planned date for the start of accepting applications is September 30.

"We hope that by the end of the year we will manage to issue the first tranches," Boiko added at the meeting.

"This is only a three-year program. In general, enormous funds will be allocated within 6 years," the director of the fund emphasized.

These measures will be taken in compliance with a national project dubbed Russia’s Digital Economy.

The National Projects related to 12 spheres (demographics, culture, healthcare, education, housing and urban environment, road infrastructure, labor productivity and employment support, science, the digital economy, small and middle-sized business, international cooperation and exports) were developed to implement the Russian president’s May 2018 Decree. The programs are planned to be effectuated in years up to and including 2024.

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