Digitalization of the Socio-Economic Complex of the Southern Federal District: First Results of Implementing the National Program

Abstract

The article studies the first results of implementing the state digitalization program in the Southern Federal District (SFD) of Russia. The paper reveals that the SFD federal entities got involved in the economy and social sphere digitalization with different intensities, and assesses the digitalization level in the district as a whole as insufficient to improve its position in the ranking (penultimate place in 2018). The significant differentiation of the regions of the SFD in the level of digitalization and the emerging tendency to gradually smooth out this gap due to the accelerated development of lagging regions, which surpass almost 2 or more times the average district growth rate of the digitalization index in 2018, are consistent with the all-Russian trends. The “digital divide” is more pronounced among the rural population compared with the urban one and less pronounced among organizations of the business and social sphere of the SFD. The presence of the digital divide in the technical, financial, territorial, demographic aspects and the insufficient level of the population digital literacy impede the implementation of the state digitalization program in the subjects of the SFD. This poses complex organizational, institutional and financial tasks for implementing the regional potential of digitalization before federal and regional authorities, business and society. The authors propose a set of measures to implement the high digitalization potential of the SFD regions, including launching in all constituent entities of the SFD and improving the quality of functioning of electronic services in the field of state and municipal administration, housing and communal services, transport, educational and medical services; growth in the share of full-service electronic services; increase in the number of people, especially older people, using the Internet, through implementing regional projects on increasing digital literacy; forming the personnel reserve of the digital economy, etc.