Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently chaired a session of the Presidium of the State Council for the Promotion of Information and Communications Technologies in the Russian Federation. The session heard a report entitled \"The Major Thrusts of the Government Policy on Closing the Digital Gap\" delivered by the Russian Minister for Information Technologies and Communications L.D. Reiman.

The Russian President told participants that in 2005 the share of information technologies in the country\'s GDP was 5.3% while in 2000 this figure was about 2%. The country\'s information communications sector, added Putin, employs over a million people today.