Russian lawmaker says it’s early to talk about return of Western IT companies
Anton Nemkin stressed that the country had already passed the stage of dependence on foreign solutions and in recent years has built its own ecosystems
MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Discussions about the possible return of Western IT companies to Russia have resumed, but it is too early to talk about it, Anton Nemkin, member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, federal coordinator of the Digital Russia project of the United Russia party, told TASS.
"The topic of the possible return of Western IT companies to the Russian market worries the domestic IT business. Earlier, this issue was raised in May at a meeting with the President, and now these talks have resumed. Nevertheless, these talks are definitely premature, and their nature is not entirely clear," Nemkin said.
He stressed that the country has already passed the stage of dependence on foreign solutions and in recent years has built its own ecosystems - from cloud services to corporate software and user applications. According to the lawmaker, almost 73% of Russian companies today are involved in the processes of import substitution of technologies.
"The level of use of domestic software in companies has already shown more than twofold growth compared to the pre-sanction period. The transition to domestic software is underway in all segments - from user applications to corporate platforms," Nemkin noted.
According to him, more than half of the technologies used today in Russian companies are Russian developments that are not inferior in quality to foreign analogues. "Another quarter are our own business developments. We have not only formed, but are also actively developing our own scientific and technical base. We do not copy, we create. And most importantly, we implement and scale," Nemkin added.
"It is important that we have moved on to the next stage - competition between Russian companies that are striving to offer more modern and effective solutions. This is a natural process of industry maturity. Therefore, we can say that for us the the return of Western corporations is secondary. Russia's digital infrastructure no longer depends on their presence," Nemkin concluded.