Digitalization of the social and economic processes in the Russian economy: the current situation and directions of development

Widespread digitalization, automation and implementation of appropriate technologies is a natural and expected process, and therefore inevitable. By reducing information search costs, digital technologies significantly reduce the cost of economic and social transactions for firms, individuals, and the public sector. Digital technologies stimulate innovations, minimizing transaction costs. They increase efficiency: existing activities and services become cheaper, faster and more convenient. Finally, they promote integration: people get access to previously unavailable services. At the same time, in terms of digitalization, Russia is currently inferior to a number of developed countries, ranked in the third ten countries. But experts agree that Russia has necessary potential for digitalization. This potential can be realized through combining planned and market approaches with the preference to the planned approach. It is important to understand that digital technologies serve the real economic sector. Thus, the transition towards a digital economy is impossible without the developed manufacturing sector and industry. The integrated approach will allow being able to achieve large-scale digitization of social and economic processes in Russia.