OREANDA-NEWS The national messenger is planned to be developed on the basis of a digital platform from the VK Internet holding, Maksut Shadaev, head of the Ministry of Finance, said at a meeting with the president.

"There are countries that have their own national messengers. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam. China. And now these national messengers dominate the local markets. VK has recently launched a fully Russian messenger service, which is comparable in its basic functionality to its foreign competitors and is not inferior to them," the minister said.

"This application is built on a new architecture, machine learning technologies are immediately integrated into it. And according to numerous reviews, this messenger provides very good voice call quality, better than that of foreign messengers," he noted.

According to him, "the most important thing is that this is an open platform that allows external providers to embed their services inside the messenger, for example, banks can implement their secure interactions with their customers."

"It is also possible to organize additional provision of public services on this platform. Our citizens, for example, can use a messenger to present digital documents that can replace a paper passport in simple everyday situations. We have discussed this several times, for example, when confirming the status of a student, for free passage to museums or confirming the rights to drive vehicles, purchase alcohol or tobacco, and show age. Or checking into a hotel," the minister said.

Shadaev stressed that "digital documents do not replace a paper passport in any way, and allow those who want to use a mobile application on a smartphone."

The services of the Gosklyuch application can also be included in the messenger, and then it can be used to sign, for example, consent to the processing of personal data, an apartment lease agreement, a car purchase and sale agreement, or a medical service agreement.

In addition, school chats are very popular, the minister said.

"During the covid period, we created a service on the Spherum communication platform, which is provided by VK, on which 35 million users have already been registered. These are students, their parents, and teachers. More than 90 million people use Russian school chats every day. Obviously, these chats can also go to the Russian messenger. At the same time, we can also implement the possibility of receiving grades or homework directly, as well as electronic journal and diary management systems," said the head of the Ministry of Finance.

It is also discussed "that the messenger is a very convenient channel for obtaining Public Services." "We can embed a so-called assistant or, as they say now, a "digital assistant" into it, which will tell the user what requirements he must meet in order to receive a particular service, submit the necessary documents for him and provide a digital document confirming the provision of the service directly to the messenger," the minister said.

"We are currently conducting a technical study of these services, and a draft law has been prepared that will create the necessary legal framework for their phased launch. From this point of view, we have a willingness," he said.

According to him, "today, the most popular services among our users are foreign messengers," which "90 million people use daily in Russia."

"Our average user spends about 50 minutes in the messenger every day, which is such a significant figure. At the same time, their audience has grown by 30% over the past three years," Shadaev said.