Russia plans to invest 200 billion rubles (around 3.4 billion U.S. dollars) in developing its information technologies this year alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

 

俄罗斯总统普京周三表示，单就2017年俄罗斯计划投资2000亿卢布（大约34亿美元）发展信息科技。

 

Putin made the remarks at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and Priority Projects, which was convened¹ to examine a program for building up a digital economy by 2024.

 

"The formation of a digital economy is a matter of national security and independence for Russia, and of competitiveness of domestic companies and the country's position in the world arena² for the long-term perspective, in fact, for decades to come," Putin said, according to an official Kremlin transcript³.

 

He said Russia has made significant progress in many areas of digital development in the last few years.

 

The share of households with access to the Internet in Russia increased to 74.8 percent in 2016 from 48.4 percent in 2010, while the average Internet speed rose by 29 percent, which is comparable to the level of France or Italy, Putin said. 

 

By early 2017, the Russian market for commercial data storage and processing centers had grown to 14.5 billion rubles (246 million dollars), he added.

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