Participants in the meeting discussed a draft federal law on areas of priority socio-economic development and other measures of government support for the Far East, as well as the implementation of tasks aimed at the rapid development of the Far East under a Federal Targeted Programme and other government programmes.
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
As we agreed, today we’ll discuss the Far East. Although recently we focused attention on other places, development of the Far East remains our national priority.
At our previous meeting in February we discussed what should be done to create a favourable business climate in the Far East, and provide terms that would interest investors and attract skilled personnel and allow us to compete successfully with our neighbours in the Asia and Pacific Region, which is probably the most difficult task.
Dmitry Medvedev: “Development of the Far East is our national priority all the way. The budget allocates substantial sums under the current economic circumstances. These allocations are primarily designed for the development of the transport system.”
We spoke about incentives for investors in the formation of priority development areas. Let me recall that I suggested to present the most radical proposals on this score because they are the only ones that could work in this respect. We understand how strong regional competition is and with whom we’ll have to compete. In this context I’d like to hear a report on what has been done during the past month in this regard.
Development of the Far East is our national priority all the way. The budget allocates substantial sums under the current economic circumstances, but it would be best to allocate five times more for this purpose. At any rate, these sums must be spent rationally. These allocations are primarily designed for the development of the transport system. They are envisaged by government programmes, including the Federal Targeted Investment Programme, inter-budgetary transfers and subsidies. But we must still analyse how efficiently these funds are spent on priority development purposes. We should work out indicators for such assessment and maybe make some adjustments if we deem them necessary. Perhaps we’ll have to adjust even the decisions on which we are working today, because we need efficient measures rather than simply implementing what we've repeatedly discussed.
Dmitry Medvedev: “They [sums] are envisaged by government programmes, including the Federal Targeted Investment Programme, inter-budgetary transfers and subsidies. But we must still analyse how efficiently these funds are spent on priority development purposes. We should work out indicators for such assessment and maybe make some adjustments if we deem them necessary.”
But even if we adjust government programmes, our measures on the Far East and the Baikal Region will remain absolute priorities. We must make a final decision. In February I instructed our experts to draft a federal law that would make our priority development areas competitive in the world arena on the basis of the best foreign and domestic practices, and would elaborate amendments to the tax and budget codes. Now I’d like to hear what has been done, with due account of all these factors.
I think we’ll hold our next meeting in the Far East. Today let’s discuss the normative base and money as usual.
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