BRICS nations should jointly develop critical software types - Russia’s Telecom Ministry

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. All BRICS nations are interested in joint development of critical software types, the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications said on Tuesday after the working visit of Minister Nikolai Nikiforov to South Africa. "Industry ministers of South Africa expressed their interest in joint developments of critical kinds of the software next to their colleagues from India, China and Brazil," the ministry said. Russian Telecom Minister discussed an opportunity of establishing an international industrial consortium for development of alternative software products based on an open operating system (OS) in cooperation with IT companies of BRICS countries during the visit. "We urge BRICS countries to start joint work in conditions of actual monopolization of the software market by just several companies from one country, with its goal being a more balanced situation on the global software applications market, when the share of a single player will not be more than a half," the minister said. An international project of a mobile OS creation already joined by several BRICS nations is currently formed, Nikiforov said. "We are looking forward to strategic investors among partners, either from South Africa or from other BRICS countries," the minister added. Nikiforov earlier held a meeting in this regard with the management of Hong Kong’s Jolla - the developer of open mobile OS Sailfish. Read more