Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
The Government continues to make the economy more resilient, and to draft decisions needed to reduce the impact of sanctions and to more quickly adapt the real economy and the service sector to new conditions.
We have added 14 new points to the priority action plan. Most of them aim to support businesses, to retain jobs and to reduce the administrative burden, including during the purchase of assets and while developing newly opened niches on commodity markets following the exit of unscrupulous partners. Last week, we discussed this subject at a meeting chaired by the President.
The approved list of additional measures calls for simplifying interaction between companies and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service. The maximum value of assets, covered by a simplified registration procedure, will be increased to two billion roubles. This applies to the purchase of shares, stakes, properties and rights with regard to commercial organisations.
Purchasers will not have to send preliminary requests and inquiries to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and wait for permission to make their purchases. Today, many companies may not have enough time for this lengthy process. All they will have to do is notify the Anti-Monopoly Service about their final transactions.
However, this does not concern vital strategic sectors, subject to special state control, and the Anti-Monopoly Service will continue to closely oversee this aspect. It will also make sure that competition is maintained during transfer of assets.
At the same time, we plan to help retailers buy shares from companies that were previously controlled by foreign owners.
Now there is a restriction – one retail network cannot exceed 25% of trade on a given territory.
Under the current conditions, this barrier may impede quick business restructuring and create temporary difficulties in different commodity markets. That is why this restriction will be suspended until the beginning of next year.
We hope these proposals will considerably simplify and expedite the closing of property deals, and will help businesses expand their projects by purchasing assets appearing on the market. Of course, they will help retain the staff of these companies if some foreign owners decide to shut down their businesses in our country.
We will continue supporting housing construction.
Despite external pressure on Russia and the difficult economic situation, we are preserving all opportunities for people to continue improving their living conditions. Today, they can take out a mortgage on easy terms to buy a flat in a new building or a plot of land, or get funds for building their own house.
On the President’s instruction, a decision was made to reduce the interest rate on such a loan to 9 percent with a limit of up to 12 million roubles for Moscow, St Petersburg and the Moscow and Leningrad regions. The limit for all other Russian regions will be six million roubles.
So that people are not limited by these sums and have a variety of choices in housing, the Government increased the maximum loan amount for a mortgage on easy terms and a family mortgage to 30 million and 15 million roubles, respectively. This way, people can purchase a more expensive flat and acquire additional funds at market or subsidised rates.
The programme will run until the end of this year. The banks that grant such loans will be compensated for the preferential limit rate.
Implementing these measures allows us to provide people with modern housing, develop the construction industry and utilise the capacities of allied industries.
There are plans to adjust specific terms for channelling major companies’ investment into special economic zones, including for the construction of tourist facilities. With this in mind, we are planning to simplify as much as possible procedures for granting resident status in special economic zones to those involved in concession agreements. This also concerns the lease of local land plots. We will set out a procedure for calculating lease payments. The Government will guarantee the allocation of specific land plots prior to signing final documents, so that concessionaires would already know their real value when preparing a specific project.We hope that such measures will help national companies restructure their work more quickly under new economic conditions and to more quickly create the required holiday infrastructure in special economic zones.Colleagues, we have adopted principled decisions on all these measures. And now, we have to quickly draft legislative amendments and the relevant legal acts.
Today, we will review another package of proposals that includes initiatives to support a number of sectors, including an expanded programme on major companies and import substitution issues. The Government prioritises this aspect. External pressure continues to influence the actions of certain foreign brands. Consequently, it is important to incentivise expanded domestic production and the creation of domestic services that our companies and citizens need, while leaving the door open for promising projects with foreign capital. The list includes investment incentives and measures to further reduce regulatory restrictions.
