The agenda includes draft federal laws and budget allocations.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will discuss support for tourists. At the President’s instruction, the Government will extend the programme that ensures the reimbursement of 20 percent of the cost of tourist trips across Russia, so that more people can have a vacation here in our country. Yesterday we mentioned this at the meeting with deputy prime ministers.
We will allocate an additional 4.7 billion roubles to extend this programme. It was launched last year and is quite popular. In March, 2 billion roubles were provided for the third stage of the programme. Almost 700,000 people have taken advantage of this opportunity.
I would like to ask the Federal Agency for Tourism and the Finance Ministry to prepare the necessary amendments to the programme implementation plan. Please do this as quickly as possible.
Colleagues, the May holidays are ahead. For many Russians, this is the time to travel to their dachas and visit relatives and friends in other cities. More people are travelling across Russia, including by train. It is important that these trips, both suburban and long-distance, are safe and comfortable.
The Government will make a series of decisions today to support the railway transport sector. We are going to provide almost 6 billion roubles to suburban passenger companies. This will make it possible not only to retain the most popular commuter train services but also to expand them, including to leisure sites.
In addition, another 5.5 billion roubles will be allocated to support long-distance passenger trains in order to maintain affordable ticket prices, renew the rolling stock, and purchase new, more comfortable and modern train carriages.
The Government has been supporting Russian regions. At the beginning of this year, during a working trip to the Republic of Karelia, we got well acquainted with the situation in the region. There are issues that need to be addressed in order to speed up its social and economic development. This also goes for the sports and tourism sectors, including the development of motorways.
Today we will additionally allocate over 650 million roubles to build and renovate important elements of the Karelian road infrastructure. This is necessary in order to lift transport restrictions and improve the safety of traffic in the republic.
In addition to this, a new sports complex for schoolchildren will be built.
These facilities are important both for the region and tourists. The possibility of comfortable trips along roads and reconstructed bridges will attract a lot of travelers to the area.
Another issue. Last year, in line with the President’s instruction, the Government decided to provide preferential loans for backbone enterprises, where millions of people are employed. It was important to maintain their financial stability amid the spread of the coronavirus infection. The largest companies from various industries were able to receive over 238 billion roubles on favourable terms. The average rate on such loans was about there percent per annum, which is significantly lower than on the market.
Today the Government will allocate almost four billion roubles to subsidise the reduced interest rate. In total, about nine billion roubles will be allocated for these purposes. The first three billion roubles were already transferred last year.
The decision to support backbone enterprises has made it possible to ensure their continuous work during a difficult period, above all to prevent people being fired and to conserve personnel as well as prevent disruptions in the payment of wages.
The Government continues to reduce the regulatory load. Ensuring fire safety requirements is one of the most difficult areas. Of course, basic conditions and terms must remain unchanged and will do so, because lives and health depends on this. But a number of amendments are pending, some of them due to the updated technologies. Our laws must take this into consideration in order not to avoid making businesses’ work more difficult, and prevent different interpretations and excessive costs.
We will significantly update the current Technical Fire Safety Rules. Obsolete, redundant and duplicate rules will be removed, while safety compliance terms will be extended. Many technical requirements can be offset by alternative engineering solutions. Moreover, enterprises will have the opportunity to submit a fire safety declaration online. All amendments are designed to reduce the risk of fires and enhance the protection of people and property.