At the Russia-Africa forum being held in Sochi (October 23–24, 2019) a cooperation and partnership agreement has been signed between the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Russian company New Cloud Technologies (NCloudTech.com). The agreement was signed with the backing of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation represented by Minister Konstantin Noskov and deputy minister Mikhail Mamonov.

Under the agreement licenses are to be made available for the productivity suite MyOffice (MyOffice.ru) support is to be provided to develop state and corporate cloud infrastructure in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and support is to be provided for education initiatives.

MyOffice is a Russian productivity software suite for communication and shared editing of documents on any technology platform which also offers full control over data by the business and government organizations using it.

The MyOffice ecosystem comprises:

• cross-platform text editing, spreadsheet and presentation, email, calendar and contacts applications
• a cloud-based data storage solution that allows the sharing of documents by multiple users
• mobile applications allowing users to use the solution on their smartphones
• a special free version for use in schools and pre-schools.

MyOffice offers secure data processing within state and corporate clouds. MyOffice technologies easily integrate with third party software on any devices and can be used to automate business processes within companies of any size. Users can access the solution from desktops and laptops as well as smartphones and tablet PCs. All the popular operating systems are supported.

Special MyOffice Education versions are available for educational institutions. These versions include an additional module that teachers can set up in accordance with the topic of a specific class. This version is offered free of charge to schools and pre-schools. Higher education institutions can buy all the products of the company with large discounts of up to 93% the business price of MyOffice.

"The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the first governments in Africa to begin a digital transformation of the government agencies and to start buying new hardware and software for them. We're also making every effort to develop our education system. We're interested in using the secure Russian MyOffice software package for shared access to documents. It offers very good protection against unauthorized access to data as well as flexible integration capabilities," said Vidiye Tshipanda Tshimanga, Strategy Advisor to the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country with great potential. The bulk of its population is made up of active young people aged 13 to 25 who need to get a good education and are willing to put in serious effort to further develop their country. Experts estimate that by 2025 there are going to be over 200 million computers and over 300 million smartphones in Africa. This means that the foundations of a safe digital infrastructure need to be laid down today and digital sovereignty of the country and its business needs to be developed now, efforts also need to be directed at educating the population in computer literacy. My Office allows these processes to begin now," said Dmitry Komissarov, New Cloud Technologies CEO.

"Africa is one of the most promising destinations for the export of Russian technologies. Our ministry is making every effort to create conditions conducive to the development of Russian business in Africa and we support private business initiatives. Our cooperation with the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a clear confirmation of that. We hope that users like the quality of Russian IT solutions," said Konstantin Noskov, Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the fastest growing countries in Africa. The country's GDP has seen sustained growth over the past 10 years, reaching USD 47.23 billion in 2018 when it was up 5.82% on 2017. In the past 30 years the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has doubled, reaching 92 million people. Meanwhile 65.5% of the population are younger than 24 and the median age in the country is just 18.