An electronic documentation system, known as e-government, will be implemented in full by 2011, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin said Wednesday at a meeting of the Communications and Press Ministry.
"We must move toward switching to electronic interagency documentation," Sobyanin said. "By the end of the year, this problem should be solved in all ministries."
In September, President Dmitry Medvedev criticized state agencies that have delayed introduction of the e-government, threatening to cut off their funding and appointing Sobyanin to oversee the program.
The e-government initiative is part of a national program aimed at developing the country's information society. The web site Gosuslugi.ru was launched in April for the purpose of providing government services online. So far, the web site mostly serves as a guide to documents and bureaucratic procedures, and does not relieve people from waiting in lines for hours to register property, apply for pension benefits or open a business.
Some web services are operating: 2,700 citizens have applied for foreign passports through Gosuslugi.ru, the Federal Migration Service said Wednesday.
But applicants have complained on various online communities that they are still required to visit the FMS office to take photographs, and confirmation e-mails take so long that it is faster to apply in person.
The number of Internet users in Russia increased by 31.5 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, while the number of personal computers went up by 11.3 percent to 52.3 million, Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev said at the meeting.
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