Agenda: Providing medication to children with serious medical conditions, grants for educational and production clusters, development of the Central Ring Road.
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
We will start by discussing support for children with serious medical conditions. The Government continues to improve the system of supplying medication to this category of patients. Under a recently signed resolution, the Circle of Kindness Foundation established at the President’s initiative will be able to purchase medications immediately after they are registered in Russia and before they become available for sale.
Among other drugs, this concerns Zolgensma, the most expensive medication in the world used to treat spinal muscular atrophy. The procedures required for this drug to be officially used in Russia were completed last December.
Now the foundation will be able to provide children patients with this and other drugs faster. It is important to prevent any delays, especially in cases when treatment does not allow interruptions and must be started as soon as possible.
The Circle of Kindness was created just over a year ago. Thanks to this organisation, kids with very challenging diagnoses around Russia will have hope for recovery.
We plan to allocate almost 80 billion roubles from the next year’s federal budget to help children with serious illnesses. This amount is 30 percent higher than last year. Even more young patients will receive the treatment they need.
Next issue. The Government has approved the grant regulation for educational and production clusters. The clusters will be established to fulfil new socioeconomic initiatives aimed at achieving the national development goals set by the President.
Such centres will be developed through partnerships between colleges and technical schools with specialised enterprises from the real sector of the economy. This will ensure a supply of specialists to meet business’ demand – through employer-sponsored programmes and by updating the existing programmes and curricula, as well as updating the requirements for graduate qualifications.
Overall, there are plans to create 210 clusters over the next three years. Projects will be selected by the Ministry of Education on a competitive basis. Each of the winning projects will receive 100 million roubles from the federal budget. Additional resources can be contributed by partner enterprises.
This approach will bring the system of secondary vocational education as close as possible to the needs and demands of employers, and young people who have completed training will find jobs faster.
One more point. All Russian regions are continuing to build roads and the necessary infrastructure this year. A core network is being formed; it will connect federal, regional and local roads, which handle the main traffic.
At the President’s instruction, the Government will continue to develop the Central Ring Road, which opened last year. A new interchange project on the Central Ring Road will begin this year, with almost 11 billion roubles provided for this purpose. A corresponding directive has been prepared.
Many local residents are looking forward to using this road, as it will cut their travel time along the new section from one hour to eight minutes.
