CIS countries continue to discuss intergovernmental approaches to the digital transformation of economic sectors. One of the key platforms for this in February was a meeting of the Commission on Economic Issues under the CIS Economic Council, held on February 18, 2026 in Moscow. According to the CIS Executive Committee, the meeting took place at VDNKh.

As follows from the official statement, the agenda included a wide range of issues — from industrial digitalization and radio navigation to spatial data and electronic information exchange for tax administration. The meeting was chaired by a representative of Turkmenistan.

The central digital issue: a draft concept for the mining and metallurgical sector of CIS countries

The first item on the agenda was the draft Concept for the Digital Transformation of the Mining and Metallurgical Sector of the CIS member states and an action plan for its implementation. The very fact that the topic was placed first on the agenda shows that industrial digitalization within the Commonwealth is seen as a separate area of intergovernmental coordination, not just an internal task of individual countries.

Additional details on the content of the draft were published in industry IT media. In particular, ict-online, citing materials from the meeting, reported that the concept envisages the coordinated introduction of end-to-end technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, digital twins and autonomous systems, as well as an emphasis on training personnel to bring these solutions into real production.

It was also noted that the documents were prepared with the participation of NUST MISIS together with the CIS Executive Committee, and that the mining and metallurgical sector itself accounts for a significant share of industrial output and GDP in a number of Commonwealth states — which explains the attention to the industry as a “point of application” for digital technologies.

Not only industry: what else was on the meeting’s digital agenda

In addition to the mining and metallurgy topic, the Commission also considered other issues related to digital infrastructure and data.

The official statement of the CIS Executive Committee specifically lists the following agenda items:

• the draft Intergovernmental Radio Navigation Program of the CIS for 2027–2030;
• amendments to the regulations on the Intergovernmental Council “Radionavigation”;
• issues of implementing the intergovernmental program in the field of geodesy, cartography, spatial data, geoinformation technologies, Earth remote sensing, cadastral registration and registration of real estate rights;
• a draft protocol amending the procedure for electronic information exchange between CIS states for tax administration.

This set of topics shows that the digital agenda in the CIS is now developing not only through “high-profile” areas like AI, but also through more applied, systemic things: navigation, interagency exchange, geodata, cadastre, tax processes and industry coordination.

Why this matters for the region

In the media agenda, digitalization often looks like a set of separate national cases: somewhere AI is discussed, somewhere data centers, somewhere mobile public services. The meeting of the Commission on Economic Issues under the CIS Economic Council shows another side of the process: an attempt to build intergovernmental frameworks and compatible approaches in areas where technology is directly linked to industry, infrastructure and administration.

For Commonwealth countries, this is especially sensitive in industries with long production chains and high standardization requirements — such as metallurgy, transport, cadastral and geoinformation systems, as well as tax data exchange.

What’s next

Following the meeting, the Commission made decisions on the issues considered, and materials on a number of items were submitted for consideration by the CIS Economic Council, whose meeting, according to the statement, is planned for April of this year. The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled for March 31, 2026.

Thus, the discussion of the digital transformation of industries in the CIS is moving from the level of general declarations to the working stage — through draft concepts, programs, changes to regulatory mechanisms and bringing issues before intergovernmental bodies of economic cooperation.