Agenda: Concept on transition to 24/7 provision of government services, implementation of the concept for the development of wholesale food markets, expanding support measures for private investment in the Arctic and the Far East.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Good afternoon, colleagues.
The Government is continuing its work to create conditions for a comfortable and convenient interaction between the citizens and the state.
Last Friday we had an in-depth discussion on transferring support measures and various benefits to the social treasury. Today we will talk about an equally important issue.
During his Address to the Federal Assembly, the President issued instructions on the provision of a vast majority of public and municipal services to Russian citizens remotely, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that people can deal with their problems at their convenience without having to visit public agencies.
To date, not all public and municipal services are provided online. For example, people have to visit an insurance company or a multifunctional public services centre in person to receive a mandatory medical insurance certificate.
This means they must find free time and arrange such visits within the office hours. Moreover, such certificates are only issued in paper form, which is not always convenient.
From now on, all public and municipal services will consistently be converted into the digital format and will be provided proactively. The relevant concept has been approved.
This will allow us to eliminate paperwork, save people time and money and greatly cut down on the time required to obtain services.
At the same time, our citizens will be able to personally request the certificates they need and receive them in hard copy at a multifunctional public services centre or at other agencies.
Another important issue is the development of wholesale food markets. The Government has already approved a relevant concept. We have also prepared a list of practical measures for its implementation.
During a recent meeting, the President said that a key task this year was to increase the manufacturing of high quality and affordable food products.
The Government will implement these instructions, in part, by creating a system of wholesale food markets so as to help Russian agricultural producers market their products as close to consumers as possible, that is, in large cities. This will also ensure that everyone has access to a broad variety of food products, because these markets will also have retail trade conditions. In other words, people will be able to choose where they can buy the required products more cheaply and conveniently.
We will need to adjust the legislation and amend the national standards.
Mr Grigorenko (Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko), I would like to ask you to organise this work in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and to personally oversee it.
I would like to say a few more words about supporting businesses.
During a recent meeting on Arctic zone development, the President set the goal of implementing priority investment projects there.
At present, private investors are implementing, with government support, over 3,000 such projects in the Arctic and the Far East. Some of them are enterprises that are still under construction and hence not making a profit, and this is why they are extremely sensitive to any changes in external conditions, especially changes in the cost of loans.
The Government has decided to expand the package of support measures for private investment in these regions. It will be possible to take out low-interest loans for projects that will create at least 250 jobs on the condition that the projects are completed on time. At the same time, this year the Government will recoup at least 50 percent of the key interest rate.
We will allocate about 30 billion roubles for this purpose.
We believe that this measure will help companies carry on with their investment projects in these regions, and that the enterprises they create will provide over 30,000 new jobs.
