On March 10 in Moscow, the head of Dagestan Sergei Melikov met with the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadaev. At the meeting, the parties discussed results of digital development of Dagestan in 2022 and the prospects of digital transformation of the main sectors of economy for 2023.

Melikov identified several directions in need for support of the federal ministry. One of them - the development of communication infrastructure on the main tourist routes. Recall, half of 130 most demanded tourists’ locations in the republic need to improve the quality of mobile radio telephone communications; in some areas - there is no data transmission or communication at all.

Maksut Shadaev supported the need to build new communication infrastructure facilities. The minister gave instructions to elaborate draft project on communication infrastructure construction in 9 populated points this year.

The top officials also touched upon the issue of providing mobile radio-electronic communications services on the sections of federal highways. At present about 70 km of approx. 635 km of federal roads are not provided with data network coverage.
Shadaev urged the mobile operators to install antenna-mast structures in these areas. The region has to help with the allocation of land plots and bring all the necessary infrastructure to cellular towers.

Sergei Melikov suggested that the head of RF Ministry should support the idea of holding a Digital Forum of Caspian states in Dagestan: its goals are experience exchange in terms of applying information technologies in state management, creation of unified approaches to information security and development of digital technologies. Maksut Shadaev supported the initiative and ordered to start preparations for the Forum.