Dmitry Medvedev: “We must create a business climate and infrastructure that will allow us to compete successfully with our next-door neighbours in the Far East.”
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Meeting on basic principles of establishing and managing territories of priority socio-economic development in the Far East
We have met today to talk about the development of the Far East, or to be more precise, about the formation of priority socio-economic hubs. This is an important issue. In his address, the President specifically mentioned this issue.
There is a proposal to create special (most favourable, to call a spade a spade) conditions for business in the administrative borders of some area or district.
The aim of this meeting is to define the most favourable terms for business. We must decide what we can or cannot accept without detriment to the interests of the common economic space and financial discipline. That said, there are no doubts that we must create these special conditions.
Dmitry Medvedev: "We should create a business climate and infrastructure that will allow us to compete successfully for investment and labour on a global scale, that is, with our next-door neighbours in the Far East."
I’d like to ask all participants in the meeting to try to put their own interests aside when considering this issue. We should create a business climate and infrastructure that will allow us to compete successfully for investment and labour on a global scale, that is, with our next-door neighbours in the Far East. They have better business conditions in many places in the region (although not in all). Let’s be honest about this – they are way ahead of us in business infrastructure and have a much stronger appeal. This region is growing very fast and we should match its appeal at least in some places.
It is necessary to elaborate special tax regulations for such territories that would encourage non-commodity exports and innovations. We also expect companies to create tens of thousands of efficient jobs. These areas will attract top-notch experts from all the word and allow us to ensure the rapid development of the Far East and Siberia.
Of course, before we do this we should clearly determine the goals of each and every project. In other words, what will we develop, who will we be competing with, and how will we fund these plans?
Dmitry Medvedev: "It is necessary to elaborate special tax regulations for such territories that would encourage non-commodity exports and innovations."
It is necessary to coordinate the financing of these plans with the endorsed funding of federal targeted programmes, as well as the investment plans of state corporations and government-sponsored companies.
I think we’ll return to this issue several times before we make all decisions, to say the least. I’ll work on these plans both at such meetings and in the Government Commission. We must invite CEOs from all leading government-sponsored companies that are operating or ready to operate in the Far East. We will not achieve much without knowing what exactly they are going to do.
I issued several instructions at the first session of the Government Commission last October. Today, we will also discuss the implementation of these instructions.
I won’t speak about the investment climate. We are following roadmaps. However, we should consider the specific features of the business climate in the Far East, which is worse than in Russia overall. In other words, business conditions in the Far East cannot even compare to those in other countries in the Asia-Pacific Region.
I’d like to emphasise this once again. Our procedures for the issue of all construction permits or network connections are the worst in the region.
We have just discussed this during a meeting. But we should not limit our efforts to the Far East. Naturally, we will try to improve the situation in the rest of the country as well. However, if we want this very difficult territory to develop faster than others, we must do our best there and resolve all tasks as soon as possible and maybe apply tougher principles than elsewhere. So, we should think about upgrading the roadmaps of our National Business Initiative. They should establish more ambitious goals than the national average.
I’d like to make one more point. We should analyse why the plans to establish special economic zones in the Far East did not materialise. I can see why – for lack of a will to carry them to the end. This is an obvious answer.
However, there are objective problems to which we should pay attention. There were many ideas – from exotic to standard – and we should review all of them without rejecting any. We should look at the development institutes that we set up specifically for the advance of the Far East. To be frank, we haven’t made much progress on this road, either. We’ve discussed this issue more than once, but without any results thus far. Probably, there are some objective and subjective reasons for this. At any rate, we must decide what to do next.
And the last point I want to make is that it is extremely important to coordinate the work of all agencies. This is a good idea, a requirement that has become trite through frequent repetitions. We say, “This should be a well-orchestrated effort”, and this is the right thing to say. Why do we need to pay special attention to coordination on this issue? Let’s get things straight. It is very difficult to work in the Far East (I’m referring to our decisions) due to its remoteness and the time difference.
Our decisions are carried out faster in central Russia or in the Urals. Regrettably, although we live in the 21st century, many decisions on the Far East are not implemented for these reasons.
Dmitry Medvedev: "It is very difficult to work in the Far East (I’m referring to our decisions) due to its remoteness and the time difference."
We must analyse what is wrong and transfer all of the authority to the Ministry for the Development of the Far East. I’d like to emphasise that all of us have our own spheres of competence and nobody is reducing them.
However, since we have established a separate ministry, we should give it all of the authority. Yes, the ministry will coordinate its major plans with profile ministries and with the federal Ministry of Economic Development and departments that resolve various tasks, but the new ministry should still be the focus of our responsibilities. This is clear. Maybe we should amend regulations or rather provisions on the ministries and departments presented at this table and transfer more powers to the new ministry. Otherwise, we will not get anywhere.
This is what I wanted to say in the beginning of our meeting. Let me repeat that this meeting on priority socio-economic hubs is the first, but by no means the last because this is a difficult issue. I do realise this and let’s all focus on this issue.
Let’s start our discussion of the issues that I mentioned in my opening remarks.
