Agenda: Draft federal laws, budgetary allocations.
Government meeting
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon,
colleagues. I would like to begin our meeting today with a very important
subject, social support for those whose incomes have decreased dramatically due
to the economic situation caused by the coronavirus epidemic. These people
include the parents who had their first child, non-working mothers, people who
are temporarily unable to work, as well as those who lost their jobs because
their enterprises collapsed. We will allocate over 8 billion roubles from the
Government’s reserve fund so as to be able to double the child allowance for
the first child already this month.
The Government has also approved a package of other support measures, in particular, to increase the ceiling amount for unemployment benefits. Those who were let go of and registered as unemployed after 1 March will receive the maximum unemployment benefits for April to June this year. Parents with minors will be issued additional payments. The Government will allocate over 56 billion roubles to the regions for the payment of these social benefits. As of late May, there were slightly more than 1.9 million such people.
The next subject on our agenda today has to do with the roads in the Russian Far East and Siberia where the infrastructure was seriously damaged by last year’s spring floods. We will provide nearly 1.7 billion roubles for road infrastructure maintenance work. These funds will be transferred to five regions: the Amur and Irkutsk regions, the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, plus the Jewish Autonomous Region. In addition to this, the Government will allocate budgetary funds for the implementation of the Kurgan Region’s socioeconomic development programme in 2020-2024. We held in-depth discussions on this document during my visit to the region. This year and over a period of the next two years, we will transfer 1 billion roubles of federal funds for the development of social, transport and utilities infrastructure in the Kurgan Region. This will be enough to create some 10,000 jobs, increase people’s incomes, improve the investment climate and bring down unemployment in the region.
Such programmes have been prepared for the 10 regions where the economic and social situation is the most complicated. My colleagues and I will resume our trips to these regions as soon as the temporary coronavirus-related restrictions are lifted.
Today we will also discuss a package of draft laws aimed at improving the system of state and corporate procurement and at supporting domestic producers. This subject was discussed at a meeting with the President yesterday. Trillions of roubles are allocated for procurement every year. However, some companies prefer to place orders with foreign providers. This has to be changed. The Russian industries have the capability to provide competitive goods, including high-tech products, to the domestic market.
The introduction of mandatory quotas for the purchase of Russian goods will complement the support we are giving to the domestic producers. The Government will have the right to determine the volume of such purchases depending on each given industry. These draft laws will be forwarded to the State Duma in the near future.
Let us get down to discussing the topics on our agenda today.
