Agenda: promoting labour mobility, capital increase for Russian Railways, subsidised loans for the fuel and energy sector.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Government meeting
Good afternoon, colleagues,
Before we proceed with the agenda, I would like to say a few words about yesterday’s Government report to the State Duma. Presenting this report is our constitutional duty. It is essential for adjusting the legislative agenda, establishing effective dialogue with the members of parliament and working together to devise measures to improve the quality of life for our citizens. This has special importance today, with Russia facing unrelenting pressure from all sides.
The Government presented a lot of detailed information. We discussed our performance in 2021 and the future priority steps we intend to take.
Let me draw your attention to the fact that the State Duma was very constructive in its attitude. It was clear that the lawmakers were ready to deliver on the objectives the President has set.
This attitude provides a solid foundation for future action, especially considering the many interesting proposals we heard yesterday. We can take up many of them.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko will continue coordinating our interaction with the State Duma.
I would like to ask you to carefully review and pay attention to the matters and initiatives voiced by representatives of the parliamentary groups.
Colleagues,
The presentation of our report at the State Duma does not mean that our cooperation with the relevant committees and deputies stops. See it as us comparing notes, and we will continue to work together with the parliamentarians. Among other things, we will receive feedback from them, which is very important in order to understand which of our measures are effective and what else needs to be done. Please take this into account in our future work.
One issue on the agenda today concerns people who are looking for work or want to change jobs. Because of the pressure from unfriendly countries, some foreign companies are leaving our market or are planning to do so. Their employees are already looking for new sources of income. Of course, the state should help them to solve this problem. Let us consider amendments to the law on employment aimed at improving labour mobility. They will give citizens more opportunities for employment all over the country.
Now only those officially registered as unemployed can get help from employment services when they move to another city or region. They and their family members are also compensated for travel expenses.
The amendments to the legislation stipulate that this option will be available to anyone, regardless of whether they have a permanent job or not.
One more thing. The Government is supporting special programmes to increase labour mobility in 19 regions. These regions are facing a dire shortage of personnel. And we are providing financial support to companies that bring specialists there from other Russian regions. This is more than 200,000 roubles for each new employee. And if we are talking about the Far Eastern regions, the amount can reach a million roubles.
The funds are used to cover expenses related to employees’ relocating and getting settling in a new place, and can also be used for professional development or extra payments.
However, in order to put all this into practice, the regions have to agree on their draft programmes at the federal level. This is a long process. That is why we will simplify the requirements. The legislative amendments state that it will be enough to approve the number of people planned to be employed with such state support. And the regions will be able to solve the issue of personnel shortages faster. And people will be able to continue their careers in a new place.
The next issue concerns support for key enterprises under external sanctions. All major sectors of the economy need this kind of support, including the railway sector, which reliably connects the regions of our large country. This is important not only for passengers, but also for the uninterrupted transport of goods and cargo, and for maintaining all logistics chains.
As instructed by the President, we will allocate 250 billion roubles for the additional capitalisation of Russian Railways. The additional funds will enable us to keep up the pace of upgrading the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian mainlines, and developing the infrastructure of the Central Transport Hub, as well as to continue the purchase of locomotives, electric trains and railcars for suburban and long-distance service.
Thanks to this decision, many domestic high-tech industries, including transport machine-building, will get new orders, which will support the country's economy and save hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Now onto the support for the fuel and energy sector. I talked about this in my report to the State Duma.
This March, the Government already allotted funds to subsidise interest rates on loans to major organisations in agriculture, industry and trade, which will enable them to produce goods, pay their suppliers and, of course, pay wages to their employees without fail.
Now companies in the fuel and energy sector will also be able to get concessional loans to increase their working capital. To this end, the Government will allocate seven billion roubles from the federal budget. The interest rate on such loans will be 11 percent. They can be taken for a period of up to one year. The maximum loan amount cannot exceed 10 billion roubles. And the main condition is that the borrower must retain at least 85 percent of jobs.
