Russia, Cuba are planning to establish a joint scientific-research center for information technologies. Russian Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Communications Igor Shchegolev and Cuba’s Minister of Communications and Information Science Ramiro Valdes Menendez have discussed the project at talks and signed a corresponding agreement.

Eleven out of 34 documents on cooperation signed by Moscow and Havana are devoted to information technologies, Menendez said. An agreement on the establishment of an electronic scientific-research center is the most important, he stressed.

The Russian Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Communications appreciated Cuba’s interest in Russia’s work on the infrastructure of an "electronic state." During Monday’s talks the two sides went ahead to a second stage of cooperation for creation of an “electronic state”. In the second stage problems connected with financing of the project will be dealt with, said a source from the Russian ministry. In the first stage of the talks the sides created the so-called "launching pad" for building an electronic state, had the software translated into Spanish and began work on training personnel.

Earlier, the Russian Federal Agency for Information Technologies had signed a plan of joint work for the employment of the "electronic state" technologies in Cuba.