Russian Digital Development Ministry to get 2.5 bln rubles in 2024 for co-funding digital transformation projects

MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - About 2.5 billion rubles will be disbursed to the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media from the government reserve fund before the end of this year to subsidize the preferential lending programs for IT companies carrying out digital transformation projects. A respective government resolution was published on the government website.

"Federal funding will expedite the fulfillment of subsidized projects, which is particularly important for the soonest digitalization of economic sectors and reduced dependence on foreign [software] analogues," Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a Russian government meeting on Thursday.

The Digital Development Ministry will control the proper and effective use of funds and make a related report to the government by March 1, 2025.

The preferential lending program for digital transformation projects kicked off in 2019. The program allows funding digital transformation projects using Russian-made software to borrow up to 10 billion rubles at an annual interest of 1% to 5%. The rate is limited to 3% for accredited IT companies.

The loans can be spent on the procurement of software and software licenses, the development of software, the payment of employee salaries, and other needs.

According to government materials, the federal budget assigns over 4 billion rubles for the program in 2024.

The Digital Development Ministry said earlier that the preferential lending mechanism would continue to be used in the future. For instance, Deputy Digital Development Minister Sergei Kuchushev said in May this year the additional investment by IT companies (including that funded by loans) in the development of domestic software and hardware will amount to 174 billion rubles by 2030.

The ministry materials also said that preferential loans to developers and customers implementing domestic solutions might total 36 billion rubles within the framework of the federal project "Support for Development and Implementation of New Software in Economic Sectors" (part of the Data Economy national project for 2025-2030). Up to 20.3 billion rubles more might be allotted as preferential loans for the development of specialized capacities in the AI sector.