The new association will provide expert support to the legislative activity of the upper house of parliament. However, first of all the Council for the Development of the Digital Economy will help the Federation Council in the relevant sphere, create these programs in the regions and assist them in developing their own content. With such a statement was made by the vice speaker of the upper house, Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia Andrei Turchak. He is also the chairman of the Council, whose first meeting was held in the Kaliningrad region. "The Council should become a professional platform for discussing the legal and regulatory framework of the digital economy, and it is necessary to get involved in the work at an early stage in the formation of the concept of draft laws," Turchak said.. According to him, it is necessary to avoid excessive overregulation and not to strive to "sew" everything in the legislation, as the adoption of laws sometimes precedes changes in the needs of the market. Turchak is sure of the need to take into account several types of processes. First, those that are directly regulated at the federal level or by local authorities. Secondly, those for whom power should only create conditions, while not necessarily legislative. "It may be necessary to open data, develop financial instruments or introduce" technological corridors, "- said the head of the Council. He stressed that the prosperity of business in the digital economy is possible without state participation. To prepare proposals and recommendations for the regions on the development and implementation of programs for the development of the digital economy is another task of the new Council. In this case, there will be four directions in priority. This is "Ensuring the systemic and balanced development of the digital economy in the subjects of the Russian Federation," "Enhancing the competitiveness of Russian technology and ensuring digital sovereignty," "Human Capital Development in the Digital Economy" and "Digitalization of Public Administration". The Council will hold its meetings on the road, on the sites of the advanced enterprises, which will make it possible to attract more regional experts and show best practices. This concerns technologies, business models, management methods that will become available to entrepreneurs and regional authorities. And they, in turn, will apply these practices in their work. The Council is not a bureaucratic body, but an expert platform, Turchak stressed.. He will unite the ideas of various experts who will work out concrete solutions. "To ensure the breakthrough, which the Russian president said in his message to the Federal Assembly, all digital. To do this, we first need to understand that the digital economy is not only IT, but also qualitatively new medicine and education, comfortable for the life of the city, convenient digital public services, the attractiveness of the economy for the best personnel, economic and national security, "explained the vice-speaker of the upper wards. He clarified that the methodology for recording the costs of the regions for the development of the digital economy will also be developed by the Council. "The meeting of the Council of Legislators, which was held in April with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, raised the issue of strengthening regional budgets and providing them with additional transfers for digitalization. Then the president supported us and instructed us to consider the possibility of including the costs of the regions for the development of the digital economy in the composition of costs that are taken into account when determining the amount of subsidies. Considering that the Federation Council is the Chamber of Regions, I consider it necessary to involve our Council in the development of a methodology for accounting for such costs when forming "model budgets" and calculating the amount of subsidies. This will create a real basis for the participation of regions in the development of the digital economy, "Turchak assured, adding that one of the benefits of digitalization is the increase in the efficiency of government spending. And this, in his opinion, should be understood in the regions. "Thus, the regions will have additional funds for development, provided the qualitative implementation of the program for digitalization," - said the party member. He believes that without scaling the best practices of digitalization of traditional industries there will not be a successful development of the digital economy. "The development of the digital economy requires scaling the best practices of digitalization of traditional industries. We are talking about the so-called "big data" and other technologies that have already proved their economic effectiveness. At the same time, customers of digitalization should not be "IT specialists", but general directors of enterprises, industry associations and industry regulators. All of them should be aware of the real economic effect that many companies are already receiving today, and invest in the digitalization of production. For comparison: the volume of investments of private companies in digitalization in Russia is only 2.2% of GDP, while in the USA it is 5%, and in Western Europe - 3.9%, "Turchak concluded.. He also stated the need to support and improve domestic manufacturers of infrastructure solutions, platforms and technologies that are directly involved in the digitalization of the country's economy. "Without this, there can be no talk not only about Russia's digital sovereignty, but also about the sustainability of economic development. We need to focus on the development and promotion of competitive domestic developments, and not on the acquisition of ready-made foreign products or foreign equipment, "United Russia. For the competitiveness of Russian manufacturers, he does not doubt, it is important to expand sales markets.

"This is a difficult path, but only in this way can we create a solid foundation for the digital economy for the future," Turchak stressed.. This Council, which included senators, representatives of relevant ministries and departments, heads of a number of regions, representatives of the scientific community, branch unions, business and state companies, was established under the Council of Federation in April. The first meeting was held on August 1 in Gusev, Kaliningrad region. The meeting was held by the vice speaker of the upper house of parliament, Andrei Turchak.