MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. IT specialists in Yakutia will design a digital platform, where the North’s low-numbered indigenous peoples will sell their traditional products, Minister for the Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunov said.

"This will be a digital platform, on which any person in the world, can not only [see and learn about these [products], but also, for example, may order any of these artifacts that people have been making traditionally. <...> Yakut IT specialists will design such a platform," he said.

According to the minister, the project will be financed by the state program for the Arctic development. "We have financial resources for it - the state program for the development of the Arctic, which has an article on the support of indigenous peoples. We will use this resource to have a good digital showcase," the minister added.

In August, Minister Alexey Chekunov and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Yakutia, where they learned about local IT projects. "They (Yakut IT specialists - TASS) make good modern platforms. I’d like to say - traditionally Tatarstan has been a strong IT region, but now Yakutia is toe-to-toe with it," he said.

Currently, in the Arctic zone of Russia, in Siberia and the Far East live representatives of 47 indigenous peoples with a total population of more than 300,000 people. They have a special status and they may enjoy a number of state incentives.