# Food System Digitalization as a Means to Promote Food and Nutrition Security in the Barents Region
## 3 Developing the Infrastructure for Food System Digitalization in the Barents Region
The importance of advances in communication, education, and finance to support farmers and their communities cannot be underestimated in the present age. Telecommunication is an important platform in which digitalization can be built and further developed. In order to maximize the benefits of digitalization in the Barents region's food sector, it is important that infrastructure, such as telecommunication networks be developed across the entire Barents region. For instance, in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the networks are highly developed while in Northwest Russia it needs to improve when digitalization harmonization across the region amongst stakeholders is considered. There is a discrepancy in technological and infrastructural developments in the Barents region. For instance, internet penetration in Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden was 92.5%, 98%, 76.4%, and 93.1% respectively [37]. The capacity of the telecommunication network in Northwest Russia remains limited, and the cost of using telecommunications within low-populated northern regions of Russia, as well as that of cross-border services between the Nordic countries and Northwest Russia, remains extremely high. This is one of the initiatives addressed in the Northern dimension [38]. The Northern dimension is a joint policy initiated in 1999 between four equal partners--the European Union, Russia, Norway, and Iceland--regarding the cross-border and external policies geographically covering Northwest Russia, the Baltic Sea, and the Arctic regions, including the Barents region. The issues of telecommunication development in the north of Russia are given great attention with the possibility of adopting smart technology with space communication [39]. The task of developing communications appears as one of the strategic documents of the Russian Federation, both at the federal and regional levels [40; 41; 42]. The development of telecommunications infrastructure in the Russian Arctic has been an important topic of discussion, both at the state level and in the business environment. Annually, there are many conferences and forums devoted to this issue [43]. In an effort to develop the communication infrastructure in northern Russia, one of the largest projects in the field of telecommunications development is the laying of a fiber-optic backbone along the Northern Sea Route. The project, in different forms, has been discussed since 1999. Currently, the active stakeholders of the project are Russia, Finland, and China [44]. In 2016, the Russian Federation implemented a similar project for the construction of an underwater optical highway linking the largest settlements in the northeast of the Russian Federation (Sakhalin-Magadan-Kamchatka) [45]. Along with the terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure, the satellite communication system is also developing [46; 47]. Mobile communications are actively developing as well. Coverage of mobile networks of the third and fourth generations is growing, and already covers the territories inhabited by indigenous peoples [48]. The Nordic industries are also developing a strategy towards the fifth-generation (5G) network. Finland and Sweden are both in the European Union, while Norway is not but aligns strongly with Nordic cooperation for mobile networks. For example, a declaration of intent [Press release, May 2018. [[https://www.government.se/press-releases/2018/05/new-nordic-cooperation-on-5g/](https://www.government.se/press-releases/2018/05/new-nordic-cooperation-on-5g/)]([https://www.government.se/press-releases/2018/05/new-nordic-cooperation-on-5g/](https://www.government.se/press-releases/2018/05/new-nordic-cooperation-on-5g/))] signed recently states that the Nordic region will be the first interconnected 5G region in the world, and identifies areas in which Nordic cooperation needs to be intensified. The development of communication infrastructures in the Russian North naturally will lead to an increase in internet penetration.