MOSCOW: Rostelecom PJSC has signed a strategic partnership memorandum with VTB to facilitate cooperation in the area of big data.

The document was signed by the President and Chairman of VTB Bank Andrey Kostin and Mikhail Oseevsky, President of Rostelecom, at the 11th annual VTB Capital “RUSSIA CALLING!” investment forum.

Rostelecom and VTB will set up a joint venture (JV) to focus on creating new products to meet customers’ needs based on big data analysis and processing, including with AI technologies. The provisional investment by both parties will amount to RUB 1 billion.

The JV will be based on a technology platform available to clients operating in the telecommunications, financial services, retail and development sectors as well as state organisations. All data sets will be verified for legality and quality prior to use and they will be depersonalised and coded. Data will be stored by companies participating in the project.

Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of VTB Bank, commented: “VTB Bank is pleased with the prospect of expanding our cooperation with Rostelecom in high-technology projects. The new platform will help structure large sets of big data accumulated in various economy sectors and use them to create digital products that will meet markets’ needs and increase efficiencies. I believe that better data quality and accessibility are critical success factors for the development of Russia’s digital economy.”

Mikhail Oseevskiy, President of Rostelecom, commented: “Rostelecom sees the development of AI technologies for big data analysis as our top priority area. We have already made good progress on this front with a number of our own proprietary tools and partner technologies that are helping us to rethink and improve the user experience. By joining our forces, Rostelecom and VTB will be able empower both the business and state sectors with digital solutions that will significantly increase their productivity.”

The JV will serve small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large corporations, and state companies. The new platform will integrate systems for big data processing, storage, analysis and exchange. The AI-optimized platform will also help process depersonalised and coded data thanks to its data stock exchange features, while also managing companies’ advertising campaigns using intelligence systems.