The three most active participating RF regions in 2021 include the Oryol Region (23 applications), the Belgorod Region (16 applications) and the Sakhalin Region (11 applications).

Thus, the bidders can submit applications for participation in the competition until April 30, and send a report by May 31, 2021. In the near future, special webinars will be held for potential participants in new nominations. Follow the announcements on the competition website.

The Analytical Center started Project Olympus in 2014. Last year, representatives of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Udmurt Republic, the Belgorod Region, the city of Sevastopol, the Trans-Baikal Territory, PJSC Inter RAO, PJSC Mining and Metallurgical Company Norilsk Nickel, and others became the winners of the competition in various nominations.

To implement the federal project, it was decided to create the Center of Expertise, said AC Deputy Head, Director of the Center of Expertise for implementing the "Artificial Intelligence" federal project Sergey Nakvasin. “We must provide support for various project activities, as well as implement a number of our own structural initiatives. We plan to implement all this in a partnership model with already established market participants,” the expert added. One of the tasks of the center, he said, is to provide the government office with comprehensive information about what is happening in the country with AI technologies and with the market as a whole.

The Center of Expertise will monitor the current situation in the field of artificial intelligence and conduct analysis to identify and visualize relevant scientific and technological “frontiers” based on the analysis of large amounts of data using AI methods. “This serious work is needed to determine the technological priorities for the development of science and technology in Russia,” Nakvasin said. The center personnel will also identify problem areas for the development of artificial intelligence in the country. In addition, it is planned to create an AI Navigator - the national online portal in the field of artificial intelligence, which will become a unified information space for the community, an aggregator of key events and messages on the AI topic, and a tool for market development. Now the center is preparing a Digest of developments in the field of artificial intelligence in the world. The first copy has already been published.

One of the key areas of the center's work will be to determine the maturity factor of companies in priority industries for the introduction of artificial intelligence. “Evaluation of companies in the economy sectors by the level of provision with sufficient possibilities and resources for the introduction of artificial intelligence into their activities and its use to improve efficiency is the most important infrastructure project for us. This is a way to accelerate the implementation of technology solutions by companies,” Nakvasin added.

Maturity of companies will be assessed by 9 factors: the use of AI, effects for businesses, development of industry solutions, human resources and competencies, infrastructure and data, research, security, corporate governance, industry structure and regulation. Experts have already started calculating the industry’s AI maturity factor and processed 230 anonymous questionnaires from enterprises.

The discussion participants were familiarized with the analytical report Almanac "Artificial Intelligence" Index 2020, prepared by the National Technological Initiative Competence Center in the sphere of "Artificial Intelligence" at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. It contains an annual report summarizing the year results and publishing Russian AI ​​industry indicators.

For an effective result, it is necessary to establish uniform, unified and optimally detailed requirements for products, data formats, and develop standard contracts. Suppliers will definitely need to indicate their price caps, stock balances and their locations, as well as possibilities for deliveries within a certain period. “The same algorithm is also to find a logistics service provider that will deliver the purchased goods to the recipient,” Tikhomirov said.

According to the expert, inventory management systems of large companies could become a prototype. In essence, the point is to create a large-scale inventory management system that would combine data on warehouse balances and production capabilities of many suppliers and manufacturers in the country.

“Of course, it appears unrealistic today, but this is not a description of current cases, but a foresight for further development,” Tikhomirov said.

Experts traditionally provide a snapshot of the situation in various areas of the energy sector. According to them, in its March report OPEC has raised the global oil consumption forecast. According to new estimates, in 2021 demand will grow to 96.3 million barrels per day, while in February this year the volume of global demand was estimated at 96.1 million barrels per day. Despite the overall positive annual trend, driven by expectations of an economic recovery and the positive impact of vaccinations, OPEC has cut its demand forecast for the first two quarters of 2021 as the global economy is still affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Natural gas production in Russia increased in February 2021. The growth reached 3.9% YoY and is associated with increased demand from Russian and foreign consumers against the backdrop of a cold winter. The increase in pipeline gas exports from Russia in January 2021 can be explained mainly by growing supplies to non-CIS countries - Italy, France and Turkey considerably increased, and Kazakhstan cut the purchases of Russian gas.

Analysts cite data from the Russian Energy Ministry, according to which coal production in February 2021 increased by 9.6% YoY, while exports increased by 11.9% YoY. The increase in exports is caused by the growing global demand for coking coal, in particular in China, which is associated with steel production recovery after a decline due to the pandemic.

In 2020, Asian countries – South Korea and Japan held dominant positions in the structure of Russia’s coal exports, and Turkey and Taiwan displayed significant growth. At the same time, coal exports to European countries, primarily to Germany and the Netherlands, significantly decreased in 2020. Russia’s thermal coal export to Europe is expected to decline in the future due to the development of "green" energy.

Read more in the “Carbon Regulation Challenges” bulletin

Other energy bulletins are available here

The theme of the 32nd IPMA Congress is Project Management in the Digital Transformation Era. The program of the event will be devoted to five thematic areas: project management in a modern organization, project management practice, competencies of a project manager in the digital era, project management methodology, integration and transformation of approaches to management of projects, organizations, businesses.

“Disciplines that were previously considered allied will be widely presented, but today we cannot imagine project management without these disciplines. This is a system-based approach to life, business and project management and the human factor in project management,” said Director of the Programming Committee of the 32nd IPMA World Congress Grigory Tsipes.

According to him, the programs of thematic streams are formed in such a way that all the participants can draw up an optimal personal schedule of the Congress conferences. Partnership events are also planned. They will focus on successful project management cases.

“During the Congress, the results of the “Best Project of the Year” nomination of the “Project Olympus” competition, which is held by the Congress partner and co-organizer - the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation, will be summed up,” Tovb added. “The Analytical Center is successfully participating in the transformation of public administration on the principles of project management and has done a lot in this area.”

Click the link to access the presentation’s record. Details of the event and registration are available at the Congress website.

The discussion participants pointed to the need to revise federal state educational standards, which are currently behind the digitalization pace, and to introduce digital components into them. However, in their opinion, it is impossible to combine the professions of a programmer and a lawyer. Therefore, experts propose to single out and fix in jurisprudence the digital core - a list of digital competencies that is mandatory for specialists in this profession. “Competencies of the first level will make it possible not to lose the current status and work in modern conditions, and of the second level - to actively participate in the development of new products and services,” Managing Director of the University 20.35 Center for Digital Economy Personnel Competences Oleg Podolsky said. These requirements, in his opinion, should be included in the educational standard in the future.

It is the professional lawyers who understand laws and can control their transition to digital format who will be able to prevent errors in algorithms that already affect the lives of ordinary people, said Sergei Izrailit, Director of the Development and Planning Department of the Skolkovo Foundation. “Law enforcement is already taking place through the implementation of algorithms that are automatically executed in information systems. No information system can independently understand our laws. If we want law enforcement practice to develop in accordance with the laws, then we need to learn how to correctly translate them into a machine-readable format. We need specialists who will be able to speak both languages: the legal and programming language,” the expert said.

Practicing lawyers who took part in the discussion expressed the view that digital technologies can only be a tool for work and help in solving routine tasks. Thus, the introduction of artificial intelligence can improve the quality and efficiency of judicial activity through the automated preparation of draft judicial acts, as well as increase the level of legal awareness through the introduction of expert systems for predicting the outcome of a court case. In addition, artificial intelligence can predict changes in the caseload depending on changes in legislation.

Andrey Peshkov, First Deputy Director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Environmental Protection of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, spoke about the main carbon-climatic threats and challenges to Russia. According to him, objective threats are associated with the lack of reliable data on the objects of emission and absorption of greenhouse gases, and the real ratio of their volumes. There are also problems with legislative control of carbon-climatic processes in Russia - there is no federal law on carbon regulation in Russia. “Russia’s interests are also influenced by the activation of economic slowdown instruments – protective rates and duties, which are faced by manufacturers of export products. We must promptly respond to these challenges in order to equalize the competitive capabilities of our manufacturers,” Peshkov added.

The consequences of climate change affect all spheres of human life, said Vasily Yablokov, Greenpeace Russia climate and energy project leader. According to him, over the past decade, the number of dangerous hydrometeorological phenomena in Russia has tripled. This results in the risk of floods and a greater concentration of air pollutants. The expert added that the annual direct and indirect economic damage from hazardous hydrometeorological events exceeds 60 billion rubles. “There are also technological and market risks for Russia,” Yablokov said. "They are related to the global energy transition and the abandonment of fossil fuels and their replacement with renewable energy sources." In his opinion, Russia needs to solve the accumulated environmental problems in three areas: the development of clean energy, forestry and a cyclical economy, including reducing the generation of solid municipal waste per inhabitant.

The experts said that for Russia, the fight against climate change is an opportunity to solve the accumulated environmental problems and carry out economic modernization. “Climate is a technological problem. Its solution concerns changes in technology, energy, transport, housing and utility services. We need to think about systemic problems, without which we can’t do anything with the climate,” added Sergei Bobylev, head of the Center for Bioeconomy and Eco-Innovation at the Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University.

The conference participants also discussed the possibilities of accelerating the formation of an institutional framework for greenhouse gas emission accounting, the role of carbon polygons in enhancement of the efficiency of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions and prospects for the formation of sustainable soil management within the framework of solving the climate agenda problems. They proposed to include crop production and work with soil in the carbon regulation model - since Russia’s agricultural land area is 5^th in the world, this direction may be promising.

The experts emphasized that Russia has enormous potential to combat climate change and can become a leader in this activity.

Quality analytics is impossible without business, the public and civil organizations, so, it is necessary to include alternate data into processing, the expert said.

In this connection, Fost highlighted interagency monitoring aimed at complete, integral and reliable knowledge of the situation in economic and social sectors based on a multidimensional data model important for higher precision of management decisions. The monitoring model rests upon several categories of data received from various sources.

The Analytical Center is implementing two major projects based on big data, the expert said. The first one is based on key indicators of national projects (or other indicators of high significance). The achievement of targets will be assessed by a variety of indicators (both official and alternative, coming from business, opinion polls, etc.), and their effect on the end result will be established. This is crucial, considering that the opinions from Rosstat or relevant agencies do not present the general picture and there is need for assessments made at the intersection of industries, Fost said.

The second project is aimed to minimize global incidents, for instance, an unexpected growth of sugar prices. The prevention of such unexpected events requires an understanding of pricing factors at all stages, Fost said, noting that required the development of a model to be based on the assessment of current weather conditions, oil and sugar beet prices, and other factors and showing whether a growth of sugar prices was possible and how it might affect consumption and costs.

The model testing will begin with several food basket items; the project will be scaled up and become a global forecasting tool in the future, Fost said.

 “Often, a linear formula used to calculate indicators does not give a feel of the real situation in the industry, social effects from the implementation of industry measures, and a feedback from the population. Interagency monitoring is an attempt at understanding and evaluating the complete picture of the events unfolding in the industry, developing base methodology, and not just receiving digits but also evaluating the degree of factors’ influence on the achievement of targets,” Fost said.

Analytical Center experts familiarized roundtable participants with a general concept of interagency monitoring, which is already tested by indicators of the physical education and sport sector. “It is important to combine data from official sources with data from alternate sources in order to create comprehensive interagency monitoring, including the account of socioeconomic effects and their influence on the living standards. The data model must include indicators from a particular sector, such as physical education and sport, combined with indicators from allied sectors, which might be interrelated directly or indirectly and influence one another,” Analytical Center expert Tatiana Satyr said.

In turn, Pavel Stroyev, Deputy Director of the Institute of Regional Economy and Inter-Budget Relations at the Financial University under the Russian Government, shared practices of the monitoring of socioeconomic indicators and their analysis. A number of key problems have been uncovered in the course of several major regional projects, he said. “The process of alteration of the administrative division of municipalities requires the continuous adjustment of the data collection system. The methods used to calculate the indicators also change quite often. There is yet another pressing problem – the absence of a unified system of interagency monitoring of socioeconomic indicators on the regional and municipal levels that would consolidate the entire data,” Stroyev said.

Head of the Moscow State University’s Regional Analysis and Political Geography Ph. D. Maria Goryachko spoke about the use of “new” alternative sources of data in the evaluation of socioeconomic development of regions as a way to minimize problems in the work process, such as delays in the provision of information. She proposed using such “new” data as geo-location, satellite images, mobile operators’ data, real estate databases, data from major retails, etc.

Systems monitoring the achievement of national targets are being created by agencies on various levels. Members of the regional executive authorities from the Republic of Tuva, the Republic of Sakha – Yakutia, and the Kaliningrad and Tyumen regions highlighted specific problems with the collection and receipt of data from regions and municipalities and presented their modeling and data model developments. Oktryty Kod LLC project supervisor Dr. Anton Ivashchenko presented a case, in which a prototype of the regional integral monitoring system was developed to increase the precision of management decisions in the region. The expert demonstrated practical capacities of the prototype system monitoring dynamics of industry indicators in the Samara region, which “reaches out” to a particular industry site and its indicators and builds a model of cross-industry indicators, correlations and mutual effect of indicators and factors.

Analytical Center head Konstantin Kalinin said, for his part, that this year the Analytical Center would not only continue to supply the Government with current information on the issues related to the national socioeconomic development. It has also been tasked with providing organizational and technical support to the newly established Coordination Center of the Russian Government.

“Regions are demonstrating a keen interest in the new system of the adoption of management decisions based on data processing, and the Analytical Center is ready to share its experience and practices with them,” Kalinin said.

The interaction between the Analytical Center and the Sverdlovsk region will focus on the formation of a system of strategic management of the regional development, the information exchange with the Region’s Management Center, the provision of methodological support to this Center, the promotion of favorable investment climate in the Sverdlovsk region, etc.

Comparing Russia’s legislation with the laws of Western countries and China, Tikhomirov said that such an important basis for termination as the interests of the state is not included in the RF legislation. In his opinion, this item must be spelled out. The speaker added there are too severe restrictions on changes in the contract under 44-FZ, and this is one of the most frequent grounds for termination.

“The rules of termination should be liberalized,” agreed Olga Gorbacheva, Deputy Head of the Department for Control over Public Procurement of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). According to her, customers tend to frequently fail to comply with the termination procedure in terms of notifying the supplier. However, such cases are also considered by the FAS taking into account all the circumstances. Repudiation is always a risk for the contractor to get into the Register of mala fide suppliers. Gorbacheva presented the objective decisions made by the FAS in a number of specific cases, noting that about half of the cases of a customer’s refusal were recognized by the FAS as unreasonable. She proposed to include in the optimization package a mechanism for the protection by entrepreneurs of their rights in terms of appealing a repudiation.

“We need to understand the motivation for terminating contracts,” says Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Lavrov. “Maybe the needs have changed or the customer saw that the winner bears the risks of non-performance. The most "malign" case is a refusal due to the fact that the winner is a “stranger". If such a case is not confirmed, it is possible to leave everything as it is.” Lavrov believes that the possibility of quick replacement of the supplier is an important measure. If the customer sees that he is not coping, the bill proposes to reduce the cancelation period. However, the deputy minister does not believe that it is

necessary to greatly simplify the terms of the execution of contracts. In his view, the main thing is a quick procedure for both concluding and terminating contracts.

“The number of terminations is decreasing in the country from 12% in 2018 to 9% in 2020,” said Nadezhda Gaponova, Deputy Director of the Center for Support of the Russian Federal Treasury Activity. According to her, 60% of terminations are contracts for public utilities, and this is most often caused by the strict conditions of the contracts themselves, the main reason is the change in conditions. The rest of the terminations are in the sphere of material and technical support. “It is convenient for us to terminate upon mutual agreement of the parties,” Gaponova said. “But we spell out penalties in the agreement, and the suppliers are ready to pay them, because no one wants to get into the Register of mala fide suppliers.” The speaker proposed to allow to conclude contracts with utility monopolists in electronic form, which will significantly speed up the process.

Anna Bolshakova, Head of the Antitrust Practice Group at the law firm Kulik & Partners Law.Economic, reported on the main problems of termination arising from judicial practice. These include the unmotivated decisions on repudiation, fixing contract violations unilaterally in the absence of a supplier and the lack of the government contract approval stage that is needed for understanding the capabilities and needs of each other. Sometimes the customer is not capable at all to assess the works’ conformance to his own specification of requirements, Bolshakova said.

There are no such cases at the Financial University. Vice-rector for infrastructure development, head of the contract service Tatyana Lobayeva said she often helps suppliers to fulfill the contract, explaining its stages. Therefore, during the year, only one contract was unilaterally terminated, when the supplier did not have access to the specified works. Lobayeva made a number of proposals, including to include in the contract the number of employees as referred to in the national standards (GOSTs) and to increase the amount of the penalty for a delay in fulfilling obligations.

It is very problematic for theaters to meet the strict requirements of 44-FZ due to the specifics of creative work, said Anna Arenkina, head of the legal work department of the Moscow Chekhov Art Theater. The impossibility of changing the contract term for the creation of copyright objects is the main reason for terminated contracts. According to her, among other reasons is the impossibility of observing the minimum share of purchases of goods of Russian origin. According to her, it is not uncommon that the necessary props are simply not produced in Russia.

“In 2019, we had 14% of terminated contracts,” said Andrei Lebedev, head of the legal service of the Moscow Metro State Unitary Enterprise. “The reason is repeated non-compliance with the deadlines and scope of services”. Not many contracts are terminated upon mutual agreement of the parties in the Moscow Metro, mainly due to a unilateral refusal of the customer. The expert specified in this connection the main problems, such as the participation in the procurement of the suppliers that do not intend to fulfill the contract, and a long period for the entry into force of the decision on unilateral refusal.

The Analytical Center experts will analyze all the proposals put forward at the roundtable.

“Last year, the restrictions introduced during the pandemic strongly affected the tourist activity of Russians. The closure of the borders stimulated the demand for travel around the country among citizens, but some regions appeared not to be ready for the increased demand”, Chukarin said. “They do not have an outlook on how many tourists might visit regional attractions, who these tourists are in general and what kind of tourism products they might be interested in."

According to him, the Analytical Center is currently initiating a project for the development of the tourism and hospitality industry, which will be piloted in several regions. The project will be used for collection, quality inspection and analyzing the data and visualizing them for making optimal management decisions in the tourism sector. An analysis of the correlation between the official indicators of the tourism industry and additional indicators calculated on big data from alternative sources, including commercial ones, will provide reliable information about the tourist flow, and its correct assessment and analysis relying on objective data will make it possible to predict it in Russian regions.

According to the roundtable participants, the use of big data will make it possible to predict internal tourist flows, manage finances rationally, identify bottlenecks in the industry and, as a result, multiply the internal tourist flow.

However, only a combination of the government and alternative data will create an effective operational monitoring system. After all, the bulk of the industry data is kept by direct consumers of tourism services and those who provide them. It is also accumulated in large IT and telecommunications companies. To this end, it is necessary to stimulate alternative data to leave digital footprints.

Such information can tell about how a person who has arrived in another region behaves and give an answer to the question of whether he is a tourist, if he comes just for one day or travels for sports purposes, said Russian Deputy Sports Minister Andrei Selsky. An understanding of tourist behavior will make it possible to attract new guests to the regions, the expert added. “The FIFA World Cup is both a tourist and sports event. Such events are catalysts for tourism development. Smaller events - regional ones – can also become drivers. These things are not so much commercialized, but interesting from the viewpoint of regional development,” Selsky said.

In addition, an analysis of passenger search data can positively influence the transport industry. Thus, Russian Railways is already engaged in the harmonization of routes, taking into account connections with other modes of transport, said General Director of RZD Technologies LLC Andrey Miskalyan. According to the expert, optimization can make the transport industry more customer-centric. He proposed creating a regulatory framework for the exchange and use of data by industry participants, and for the allocation of roles and responsibilities for intermodal travel. He added that in his view, a law on multimodal passenger transportation is needed.

The tourism sector is already undergoing digital transformation, said Director of Government Relations at Google Russia Marina Zhulich. According to her, this will attract new tourists and help rebuild the sector. Therefore, the demand for tourist holidays has not disappeared altogether due to the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine, but has become deferred and can intensify at any time. In addition, the interest in new travel formats has grown. Importantly, the government should monitor and adequately respond to such trends, Zhulich said.

The conference participants said it is the Covid-19 pandemic that is behind the growing interest to the industry. The lockdown was instrumental in the merger of traditional sports and esports. Thus, sports federations held joint online tournaments, which attracted big crowds. “Last year’s Chess Olympics was carried out fully online for the first time ever. The question: is chess a kind of esport?  From my own perspective -- yes it is. Events held during the quarantine and which did not involve sparring were officiated online”, said Russian Deputy Sports Minister Andrei Selsky”. He added that modern technologies are able to answer the long-standing questions as to e-sportsmen, namely “what to do with the physical form of those engaged in esports?” In his opinion, both traditional sports and esports will soon embrace cyberphysical systems and exns esoon embrace cyvhape of thioskeletons. “Those are new technical means for sports. In the recent past, esports was an intellectual game but nowadays it is somewhere in-between intellectual games and sports with the use of technical means and moving towards paramilitary sports”, said Selsky.

“The door to the Z-generation community is also opened by esports”, Nikolai Petrosyan, Esforse Holding’s media arm manager, said. “For those born in the 2000s, esports is nothing less than a real sport”, he added. They account for 32% of the world’s population; the figure for Russia is 13%.  Notably, 70% of them are gamers and they live in a digital environment. Their purchasing power is $44 bln, an amount which tends to rise. The future of many industries depends on the way they will spend their money.

“With that in mind various brands increasingly often stake on esports for sponsorships”, said Sergei Burkhudaryan, Esforse Holding’s business manager. That allows them to refresh their image and become more technology-oriented. That way the brands boost the loyalty of their current clients and transform themselves as to meet requirements of the generations to come. There are new brands, and there are the market’s old-timers both testifying to a definite stability of the market.

The fact is only 14% of Russians consider esports as a full-fledged sports discipline. According to experts, many promising teams and players start their career in regions with underdeveloped sponsorship mechanisms. Moreover, there is a shortage of analysts, commentators and engineers able to serve esports events.

The experts are positive that the government is able to move the industry forward in this country. Thus, President of the Russian Esports Federation (RESF) Dmitry Smit believes the government is in a position to introduce professions needed in esports and support the industry participants at the regional level. The conference participants added that the transition of traditional sports into an online regime may also prove beneficial. They strongly believe that the right supporting actions can facilitate the country’s mass sport progress.

Esports’ promising nature for young people’s career advancement, and the importance of educational programs were highlighted by Yaroslav Meshalkin, Esforce Holding’s strategic communications manager, Co-Chairman of the Gaming Industry and E-Sports cluster of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), and Konstantin Pozdnyakov, head of the Business Management Department of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

The videoconference was organized jointly with the Russian Esports Federation.

“The goals of Project Olympus do not change - they are support and popularization of methods and principles of effective management, but the tools of such management are constantly being improved, and many interesting solutions and approaches have appeared in recent years. So we are expanding the focus of the Competition. This year, it will include the strategic and lean management tracks, optimization of business processes, customer-centricity,” Vinokurov said. “We hope that the Competition will preserve its position as a platform for the accumulation and exchange of best practices of effective management”.

It should be recalled that the Project Olympus winners in various nominations last year were the Department of Process and Project Management of the Administration of the Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Project Department of the Administration of the Head and Government of the Udmurt Republic, PJSC Inter RAO, PJSC Mining and Metallurgical Company Norilsk Nickel, the Department of Culture of the Belgorod Region, the Economic Development Department of the city of Sevastopol, the Russian Pension Fund Division for the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Government of the Belgorod Region (the Internal and Personnel Policy Department of the Belgorod Region, FSAEI HE Belgorod State National Research University and Budgetary Institution of Higher Education Surgut State University).

In 2021, the organizing committee expects at least 200 applications for participation in the competition to be submitted. For the participants’ convenience, the receipt of applications and reports will be organized online on the Competition website.

The webinar will begin on March 19 at 12:00, Moscow time. To participate, please register using the link.

The events of recent months are a reminder of the continuing role of gas in energy balances in the conditions of periodic weather and climate shocks, the bulletin says. Gas can provide a more flexible response to fluctuations in demand in contrast to renewable energy sources and nuclear power, at least before the start of the massive introduction of commercially efficient energy storage.

Due to a moderate recovery in supplies compared to demand, the world gas market may become more balanced this year, analysts say. A balanced market will improve the price situation and thus, probably, overcompensate for Russia's losses from a decline in exports.

The experts in the bulletin also made a detailed analysis of other types of fuel: oil, coal and electricity.

Read more in the “Gas Markets Emerging Out of the Crisis” bulletin

Other energy bulletins are available here

Education is both using big data and generating it in huge quantities, which suggests the need for a classifier, a big data integrator, and a standard of digital education ecosystem. The issues of digital services’ integration and training of personnel with relevant competences also become topical, Karakchiyeva said.

Alexey Semyonov, Director of the Educational Informatics Institute at the Informatics and Management Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the audience about big data use in school, emphasizing the possibility of more objective control over learning. “A transparent world is unavoidable, and this should be explained to children. However, that won’t work unless we manage to integrate data flows,” Semyonov said.

Olga Fiofanova, Scientific Director of the Education Management Center at the Industry Management Institute of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, spoke about professional development and data competences of pedagogues. “The structure and logic of teaching and management are changing, which also requires a change of regulators, i.e. professional standards,” the speaker said. She also declared the need for building integral platforms for educational data analysis.

Dmitry Metelkin, Deputy Director of the Education Ministry’s Digital Transformation and Big Data Department, spoke about areas of digital transformation of the education system and the development of digital services of the My School platform. “Analysis of data assets is important, and it’s our task to develop regulations for their streamlining, Metelkin said.

“The creation of a relevant platform with a package of management solutions could be a tool of control over continuous education,” Valery Grigoryev, a leading research fellow at the Center for the Economics of Continuing Education at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, said. However, it would be necessary to create a relevant resource for an aggregator combining disconnected data.

Viktor Bolotov, Scientific Director of the Center for Monitoring Education Quality at the Higher School of Economics Research University’s Institute of Education, described data reliability as major aspect of big data processing. “Head-on use and interpretation of data out of the context create very serious risks,” Bolotov said.

E-Publish PJSC General Director Dmitry Balandin presented products facilitating data entry and verification of educational websites. “There are lots of services, and every one of them is based on the relevant law,” Balandin said, adding, “Laws need to be harmonized as a way to avoid redundant data entries and data fragmentation.”

Tigran Shmis, Senior Education Specialist and World Bank Project Coordinator in Russia, spoke about studies of global digital school transformation. Once the pandemic ends, families will be ready to continue the use of online platforms for distance learning of their children, however, hybrid learning is more preferable, he said.

The “incidents” mean situations emerging in the course of activity of the authorities and requiring “an immediate response and a rapid resolution” on the orders from the prime minister or deputy prime ministers.

Federal agencies are tasked with involving in the activity of the new body by March 31, and the regional authorities have received a similar recommendation. Consistent with the provisions on the Coordination Center, it will be a permanent body under the Russian government, and the prime minister will exercise strategic control and provide general supervision. A deputy prime minister will be designated as the head of the Coordination Center.

The Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation has been tasked with providing organizational and technical support to the activity of the new body. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communication and Mass Media will be responsible for the creation and development of the incident management information system and other information systems to be used by the Coordination Center. Data transmission and integration of state and departmental information systems with information systems of the Coordination Center will be organized.

Decisions made by the Coordination Center will be mandatory for all agencies taking part in its activity.

Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow Region have kept the first three places in the new rating. Their aggregate rating score exceeds 75 (possible minimum - 1, possible maximum - 100). The Russian capital scored 82.16 points, St. Petersburg - 80.63, and the Moscow region - 76.07. The TOP-10 also includes the Republic of Tatarstan, the Belgorod region, the Krasnodar Territory, the Leningrad region, the Voronezh Region, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area - Yugra and the Kaliningrad region. Compared to the previous rating, the top ten remains practically unchanged. The top regions, characterized by a high level of economic development, account for about 40% of the total GRP of the Russian Federation’s constituent entities, retail trade turnover, and investments in fixed assets.

Compared to the previous year, the last ten regions in the rating are also practically the same. The general factors influencing the standing of outsiders are the low socio-economic development level, lagging behind in terms of the population’s income and high unemployment level. Kalmykia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, the Kurgan region, the Altai Republic, Buryatia, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Karachay-Cherkessia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Tuva Republic are the last in the 2020 ranking.

According to the study authors, non-substantial changes in the positions of the regions compared to the previous year’s standing testify to the fact that basically, the living standards indicators have not changed significantly.

“The regions' positions in the life quality rating reflect, first of all, their objective competitive advantages. The traditional leaders of the rating are the regions with the largest capacity of the domestic market, developed infrastructure, high level of human capital, as well as export-oriented regions,” says Anton Steshenko, head of the Analytical Center’s Strategic Development, Public Administration and Regional Policy Department. “The outsiders are the Russian Federation’s constituent entities with low incomes of the population and a tense labor market due to the existing structure of the economy, which lacks easily commercialized growth factors (the availability of natural resources, access to external markets, agglomeration effect). The outsider regions are also characterized by low fiscal capacity, which prevents them from advanced building of infrastructure”.

The AC expert believes that the key condition for improving the regions’ standing in the rating is a proactive investment policy aimed at creating new growth points in their territory.

Ulyanovsk is currently pursuing ambitious targets set within the framework of the national program “Digital Economy”. “Thanks to the signed agreement, we will continue participation  in the project “Digital passport of the region” and will continually forward up-to-date information with the socio-economic, financial, environmental and other development indicators of the Ulyanovsk region for their further use by the Analytical Center experts,” said Ulyanovsk region governor Sergei Morozov.

Information exchange will help to promptly adjust the region’s development plans, work out the necessary managerial decisions, which will ultimately improve living standards of the region's residents, the governor said.

The Ulyanovsk region will be among the first entities piloting the transfer of data arrays through the governor's Situation Center to the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation.

New federal aviation rules took effect early this year to ensure the compliance with aviation safety requirements. However, in the opinion of market actors, airlines are unable to comply with the rules due to the legal collision.

“For now, territorial departments turn down applications for airworthiness certificates, as they do not understand how to use the new rules. There is only one month left until the beginning of the season. The south is concerned about the new problem more than anyone else. The absence of permits in the beginning of the season may thwart the existent contracts and replace aircraft with ground vehicles,” Aeron Airline Director Igor Popov said.

Aeroprom Airline Director Maria Davydenko said, for her part, that federal aviation rules are crucial for normal operation of the industry. This disciplines the market and allows operators to feel confident and protected and to invest in business development. However, the new rules should be endorsed with due account of interests of market actors, she said.

The experts pointed out that the impossibility to receive aerial application permits will reduce competition, double the cost of works, impact the development of light aviation, and lessen the possibility of support to domestic aircraft manufacturers and modernization of the fleet. A possible result is stagnation; besides, the industry may lose its appeal to investors.

Conference participants proposed a number of measures as a way to solve the problem. For instance, the validity of the existent airworthiness certificates could be extended for one year since the date of issuance and the existent permits could be used till their expiry date. That will allow airlines to prepare for certification consistent with new federal aviation rules.