Mikhail Mishustin: “Infrastructure budget loans have proven to be relevant. There is much interest in this tool among the Russian regions. The applications we have received are double the approved limit. We do hope that these funds will serve as development drivers for the regions.”
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers
Colleagues, good afternoon.
On Friday, we visited the Kursk Region and toured a regional clinical hospital, as well as a company that makes hardware for the aviation, oil and gas, and chemical industries, as well as several other sectors.
We discussed a number of matters with Kursk Region Governor Roman Starovoit, including how the infrastructure budget loans work. This is a new tool for supporting regions created by the Government at the President’s instruction.
On Wednesday, the Kursk Region’s application for this loan was approved. These funds will help this region carry out important projects, including building two kindergartens, a water pipeline and a road. This is what Kursk needs for its development. It is for fulfilling objectives of this kind that we launched this financial instrument. New infrastructure will enable us to support regional economic development, while new social facilities, utilities and roads will have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Infrastructure budget loans have proven to be relevant. There is much interest in this tool among Russian regions. The applications we have received are double the approved limit. We do hope that these funds will serve as development drivers for the regions.
There is another solution that is essential for infrastructure development in the Russian regions.
All who had the experience of buying land plots for summer homes within communities designated as gardeners’ non-commercial partnerships have had to deal with getting electricity. As things stand today, this requires additional spending, and often the cost of this service is quite hefty. Under the current regulations, power companies build the power line up to where the community territory begins, and in order to have electricity on their land plots, homeowners have to hire electricians, find them and coordinate the works with the gardeners’ partnership board.
The bigger the distance between the land plot and the boundary of the community, the more people have to pay for getting electricity, and they can spend months waiting for a grid connection. Moreover, nothing guarantees that the work will be done to the standard.
Furthermore, people keep facing unjustified requirements from the boards, who, taking advantage of their authority, can make people pay additional fees for connections, as well as for electricity use, and issue electricity bills inflated beyond all reasonable limits. However, people do not have any other option but to pay the price, or they lose power supply.
To address these problems, the Government drafted a resolution. By amending the corresponding technological connection regulations, we will make it much easier for summer-home owners to get electricity.
Under the new rules, the grid company will be tasked to bring the power line to land plots within gardeners’ non-commercial partnerships for a fixed fee and within 30 days. To get electricity, people will only have to file an application with the local provider.
This creates a more intelligible and transparent environment, and people will no longer depend on the mood of the local community’s board or their personal relations with its members.
The Government continues to expand the use of the latest technology in education by creating new user-friendly services. We have made another step on the path to digital transformation as instructed by the President.
Today, we are launching a pilot project for issuing electronic certificates of general secondary education. It will run until the end of this year, and will include schools affiliated with five Russian universities: Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Ural Federal University, as well as the Russian University of Transport.
The certificate will be created within the Single Registry of Digital Education Documents, and will be available in the user account on the public services portal. It will feature all data on the graduate’s education, just like in the hard-copy document we all know. The corresponding university will certify the certificate’s authenticity with its digital signature.
The outcomes of this pilot project will be taken into consideration as we make further steps to digitise services in education, as well as other education documents, so that this solution becomes available to graduates from all secondary and higher education institutions across the country.
Using digital education documents will be much easier in many circumstances. For one thing, you cannot lose or damage them, so there is no need to apply with various institutions in order to obtain a duplicate. No need to present diplomas or academic certificates when applying for a job, either, since employers will be able to access them and learn everything they need to know about the applicant’s education and knowledge.
There is another important matter. The Government will boost funding for the programme enabling people living in Russia’s Far East to benefit from subsidised air fares. We decided to allocate airlines almost half a billion roubles in additional funding.
We have already earmarked 5 billion roubles to this effect since the beginning of the year, which enabled us to ensure that flights linking Moscow to 12 destinations in Russia’s Far East are affordable. You remember that the President mentioned this on numerous occasions.
The Government has now added two more destinations, Chita and Yakutsk, to this list. For the first time, we will also subsidise flights to St Petersburg from seven cities, including Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Half a million people have been able to buy discounted tickets this year. The new allotment will pay for another 50,000 subsidised air fares. It is essential that the discounted tickets become available as soon as possible.
I am asking the Ministry of Transport to please hurry in order to complete all the necessary formalities and sign agreements with the airlines. They must complete all the arrangements without delay so that people can buy these tickets starting next week.
Moving on to the next item on the agenda, the Government has approved the Concept for Integrating UAVs into the Single Airspace. We drafted this document as per the Presidential instruction.
Tens of thousands of drones have already been registered in Russia. People use them for aerial photography, in agriculture and other sectors. There are also pilot projects to use these devices for deliveries. This is especially important since our country makes efficient, high-quality drones, and there will be more and more of them as this technology develops.
The Concept will be carried out in three stages. First, we need to amend aviation law and create a legal framework. This includes streamlining procedures for registering these devices and obtaining flight permits. In addition to this, we need to update staff training programmes.
The second stage will consist of ensuring flight safety, as well as upgrading aviation infrastructure, including communications, navigation and air control systems. It is essential that the electronics, software and hardware, and also digital platforms are mostly designed in Russia.
The third stage consist of deploying the technical infrastructure for UAVs and digital flight control solutions.
Our main goal is to ensure maximum safety under this concept. This must be done within the next ten years.
We have major, serious challenges ahead of us. Developers, manufacturers, airlines and, of course, the state will have to work together. It is essential that we avoid any hasty action or ill-advised moves. After all, the lives and health of people will depend on whether we take the right decisions.
