The results of the Russian national competition "The best region in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)" were announced on April 25, 2003. The competition was conducted within the Electronic Russia federal task program and was organized by the RBC company as entrusted by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry. The competition has fully corresponded to the objectives of the task program and was vitally important for it. These objectives include the introduction and mass spread of Information and Communication Technologies, securing the right for free reception and distribution of information and promoting the training of specialists in Information and Communication Technologies as well as qualified users.

The results of the competition provided an unbiased demonstration of IT development in each region of Russia. This enables the Ministry to work out measures for the further development of the regions. Winners of the competition were chosen at a meeting of expert commissions on April 25 and then the awarding ceremony was held in the Congress Center of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The expert commissions, consisting of public officials, scientists and leading IT specialists, found the following regions deserving the awards:

Nomination "Accessibility of ICT"

First place - Moscow

Second place - St. Petersburg

Third place - the Moscow region

Nomination "State support to regional informatization"

First place - Moscow

Second place - the Moscow region

Third place - the Yaroslavl region

Nomination "The use of ICT for regional development"

First place - St. Petersburg

Second place - the Tatarstan Republic

Subnomination "ICT in education"

First place - the Karelia Republic

Second place - St. Petersburg

Third place - Yakutia (the Sakha Republic)

Subnomination "ICT in medicine"

First place - Moscow

Second place - St. Petersburg

Third place - the Irkutsk ergion

Subnomination "ICT in culture"

First place - St. Petersburg

Second place - the Tatarstan Republic

Third place - the Smolensk region

Subnomination "E-business"

First place - the Ulyanovsk region

Second place - the Omsk region

Third place - the Kaluga region

Subnomination "E-government"

First place - the Yamalo-Nenetsk autonomous region

Second place - the Tatarstan Republic

Third place - the Moscow region

Nomination "Business environment"

First place - North Ossetia

Second place - the Rostov region

Third place - the Bashkortostan Republic

Nomination - "Human capital"

First place - the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic

Second place - the Udmurtia Republic Республика Удмуртия

Third place - the Khabarovsk region

According to Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrey Sharonov, "the competition provided plentiful information about the state of Information and Communication Technologies in regions. It is very important that regions became more aware of the advantages that they may have by developing the ICT sector and of what opportunities they have now." Tseren Tserenov, the head of the ministry's department of corporate governance and new economy, announced that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was going to continue holding such competitions regularly. "This will provide significant aid in planning other events within the Electronic Russia program," he was quoted as saying.

RBC's General Director Yury Rovensky believes that the main idea of the competition was to give its participants, if they fail to stand out in any nomination, an opportunity to compare themselves with others and boost further growth. "If this competition becomes traditional, it will be easier to track the dynamics of growth," Rovensky noted. "RBC is ready to render further information and organizational support to this competition, since its objectives fully correspond to RBC's mission."