The meeting will focus on the further development of regulatory impact analysis.
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Colleagues, the main issue on our agenda today concerns the system of regulatory impact (assessment) analysis.
We regularly discuss ways to lower administrative barriers. Sometimes we do better and sometimes not as good, but it’s a fact that one of the best ways to address this issue is to analyse the potential effectiveness of laws. Actually, this is a normal way to interact with the expert community and business, which provide feedback during this analysis.
Since 2010, we have prepared over 2,500 conclusions on the regulatory impact of Government and ministry regulations. We have launched a specialised website, which has become a useful platform for public consultation on these issues. Public business associations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), Delovaya Rossiya, Opora Russia and the expert community take part in these consultations.
The number of such regulations has increased a lot recently. We should also further develop the regulatory impact analysis system, and there are several ways to do this.
First, we need to determine the areas where the drafts of Government and ministry regulations should be analysed or assessed. It’s clear that these are the most important areas for business, such as state control, customs, taxes and duties, mandatory requirements for products and production. In fact, everything that is connected with the economy influences the regulatory impact assessment system in one way or another.
Dmitry Medvedev: "Since 2010, we have prepared over 2,500 conclusions on the regulatory impact of Government and ministry regulations. We have launched a specialised website, which has become a useful platform for public consultation on these issues."
Second, as our colleagues from the RUIE and other agencies have told me more than once, practice shows that draft laws can change seriously after the first reading in the State Duma, and so should be assessed again before the second reading. We should expand the authority of the Government Commission on Lawmaking to enable it to make these proposals to the State Duma.
And the third thing I’d like to say concerns the impact assessment of the regulations that can radically change the rules of business. These documents should be assessed not only at the drafting stage, but possibly also several years after they come into effect, so as to adopt a final decision on a given document’s future. I hope that the further development of the regulatory impact analysis system will help us to improve the quality of our laws and lawmaking. The Minister for Economic Development will report on this today, and we have also invited Vladimir Lisin from the Government Expert Council.
Dmitry Medvedev: "These documents should be assessed not only at the drafting stage, but possibly also several years after they come into effect, so as to adopt a final decision on a given document’s future."
We will also discuss an important draft law designed to reincorporate Russian Post, a federal unitary enterprise right now, as a joint-stock company. We understand that its current state, to put it lightly, is lackluster. The company is facing many grievances from both consumers and the market as a whole. Obviously, Russian Post needs a major overhaul. We have repeatedly discussed this topic at various meetings. Its current organisational and legal form as a unitary enterprise is a drag on its development. In the larger scheme of things, we have been drifting away from unitary enterprises. Specifically, there are major limitations for investors, without whom any corporate activity is impossible.
In this context, the Government has decided to reincorporate this enterprise as a joint-stock company, leaving 100% of its stock publicly owned. I hope that the reorganised company will work better and will be able to attract long-term investment, including so-called distant selling and new services. The Post should no longer be the postal authority that it was under the Tsars and in the Soviet period, an agency responsible for delivering mail and parcels. It should become a smoothly operating business.
Actually, there are almost 42,000 post offices that link this country together. They can perform new functions as communication centres, offering internet services, including internet shopping, and receiving utility payments. Every single post office should have this capacity, as well as all people in all parts of this country, no matter how remote, should be able to use the whole range of new services.
Dmitry Medvedev: "The bill does not envisage the privatisation of Russian Post after it is converted to joint-stock operation. The joint-stock company will take over the rights and obligations of the current federal state unitary enterprise, including its credit liabilities."
The bill does not envisage the privatisation of Russian Post after it is converted to joint-stock operation. The joint-stock company will take over the rights and obligations of the current federal state unitary enterprise, including its credit liabilities. Hopefully, this conversion will not require additional allocations from the federal budget or budgets at lower levels.
We will also consider subsidies and other budget transfers in the educational sphere. The Government continues to give support to the higher educational system in order to achieve the ambitious aims we have set ourselves. Last year, about 9 billion roubles was allocated to support leading universities (I will first remind you of the higher educational establishments). This year, we have set aside more than 10 billion roubles to finance the same universities that we have put in the leading category.
Apart from that, the academic year is over at secondary schools. The new academic year will begin three months from now, or even earlier. The important thing is that all schools in all regions of the Russian Federation, including, naturally, schools in Crimea, should conform with Russian educational standards. To achieve this target, we should modernise regional educational systems and upgrade their facilities. All educational establishments should be more comfortable and modern. And, of course, schoolchildren should be supplied with everything they need for their studies, including textbooks, school buses, and so on. Teachers should also be given an opportunity to upgrade their professional qualification. In 2014, we are planning to allocate more than 3 billion roubles to the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol for this purpose.
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