North African countries: economic development and readiness for digitalization

The author believes that the countries of North Africa, with a much differentiated level of socio- economic and digital development, already have certain opportunities for digital development, the need for such development and the creation of digital potential, including in the field of digital trade. However, in our opinion, the countries of the region currently lack a strategic understanding of specific industry tasks in the field of digitalization. It is important to strengthen the presence of the Russian Federation in the digital segment of the region, especially in key segments of the economy. According to the author, the prerequisites for strengthening cooperation in this segment really exist, in particular, they are predetermined by both a fairly active digitalization in the Russian Federation and the growth of Russian-North African trade in the commodity segment and in the service sector based on the growing interest of the parties in the further development of bilateral cooperation, taking into account the growth of global uncertainty.