On July 1st, the Vice President of the MCCI, Mr. Suren Vardanyan, took part in the panel discussion "City on Demand. Ecosystem of public services for business", which took place within the framework of the 10th Anniversary Moscow Urban Forum.
Moscow is one of the prime examples of the cities, where digital ecosystems are being created, combining services and platforms for people and businesses. The innovative services of the capital cover all aspects of the city life. Participants of the panel discussed the possibilities of building a unified ecosystem of digital services for business, tried to determine highest priorities for entrepreneurs and how exactly can city administrations effectively communicate with businesses through digital platforms.
Mr. Maxim Gaman, the Minister of the Moscow City Government and Head of the Moscow City Property Department, who opened the discussion with his speech, believes that the level of digitalization can be divided into "before" and “after" stages of the outbreak of the pandemic. He said that the Department was one of the first to implement a system of video consultations on various issues through the mos.ru website. During the pandemic, more than five thousand applicants asked for help. "For us, digitalization is not a tribute to fashion, but a systematic work of recent years. We set out for a complete transformation back in 2010. But in order to release the product to the outside world, we had to prepare," - said Mr. Gaman. The Head of the City Property added that it is a continuous process, which should be pursued further.
The Head of the Department of Moscow Competition Policy, Mr.Ivan Shcherbakov, said that the city has created a “marketplace” for suppliers - a single showcase of procurement, which allows to carry out transactions in an electronic store format. Supplier portal has been recognized as the best Russian development to support businesses and was recommended to all the regions. ”Today, all of the city's available equity can be found on a single site. Everything that is owned by the city and is planned to be rented or sold, is placed there according to uniform rules, which is very important. Everything is in electronic form", - said Mr. Shcherbakov.
The Moderator of the panel discussion, Mr. Vladimir Markin, asked the Vice-President of the MCCI what changes does a business experience and how business feels about the processes of digitalization, and what does business community think about it.
"As it happens, practice, the portal of suppliers is really one of the most demanded and "tweaked" with the help of business mechanisms, allowing small and medium-sized businesses to participate in certain tenders," - replied Suren Vardanyan. He added that the system of Chambers of Commerce and Industry itself is also a peculiar ecosystem of the business community, which "in different countries, somehow, in one form or another, communicates and creates an element of adaptation for business needs”.
"We have made a huge leap in digitalization! What could have been done in five years, we did in a year. And this has affected all the algorithms of business," said the the Vice President. He stressed that businesses should furnish the State with expert evaluations of certain decisions. "The expert community, represented by business circles, can provide this assessment,” - Suren Vardanyan is sure.
"The ecosystem is the space, in which any community can develop naturally and organically - entrepreneurs, ordinary citizens-consumers, government officials, and so on," summarized the Moderator of the meeting.
Mr. Andrey Kashutin, the General Director of JSC "United Electronic Marketplace", spoke about organization of electronic trading in Moscow and the level of digitalization.
Mr. Anatoly Kurmanov, a member of the working group of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation on implementation of the Smart City project, told about regional practices of data accumulation and analysis. "The figure is not an end in itself. The figure is a tool to solve certain problems. The key goal is to increase the competitiveness of cities and regions of the Russian Federation, because now large agglomerations are struggling for residents. Today, choosing where to live, a person chooses not only the level of wages, but also a comfortable environment around him," said Mr. Kurmanov.
Mr. Vladislav Onishchenko, the President of the CSR and Head of the Digital Government working group of the Digital Economy Autonomous Nonprofit Organization, said that the government has adopted a program under which all state services will be available 24/7 without a trip to the MFC. The program will be implemented both at the city level and at the regional level. "This means not only a radical increase in the amount of data available, but also the engineering of business processes behind it," stressed Mr. Onishchenko.
The Chairman of the Board of the Association of Investors of Moscow, Ms. Lyubov Tsvetkova, estimated the level of digitalization of public services in the construction sector at almost 90%.
"A figure is a figure, but live communication is certainly inspiring. The discussion was lively and interesting, no one was bored. We received a lot of information and we all have a lot to think about," summed up the meeting, the Moderator, Mr. Vladimir Markin.