The agenda includes the creation of a federal register for long-term construction projects, creation of a modern waste management infrastructure, and implementation of the General Cleaning project.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Marat Khusnullin’s report on eliminating long-term construction projects
Viktoria Abramchenko’s report on cleaning the waters of the Far Eastern Federal District
Excerpts from transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will discuss several important issues. First, the creation of a federal register for long-term construction projects. This will make it possible to promote cooperation and expedite the work needed to complete these projects and open these facilities.
All of them are in various states of completion. Many of them, even after construction is completed and all the infrastructure is added, are not considered ready. With this kind of register, we will be able to step up this process and resolve all the formalities faster. It will contain all the information for a well-planned path to their final destiny.
After all, there are thousands of long-term construction projects, for which budget funds were allocated, and each of them requires a separate solution. And there are many hospitals, clinics, kindergartens, and other social infrastructure facilities among them, projects people are waiting for.
Mr Khusnullin, you are getting into this seriously. Please report on the elimination process for long-term construction projects.
Marat Khusnullin: Mr Mishustin, colleagues,
At a meeting of the State Council Presidium dedicated to the Strategy for the Development of the Construction Industry and the Housing and Utilities Sector, the President gave instructions to complete the construction of unfinished facilities in the coming years.
This is an acute problem that has been building up for years at the federal, regional and municipal levels. It also should be noted that the Government and regions have done a lot over the recent years: the number of unfinished facilities has dropped significantly. However, this requires further systematic work.
Mr Mishustin, you have approved the road map that we follow. We are making good progress, and have implemented several points of this map. The Ministry of Construction has been tasked with reducing the volume of unfinished building. Also, the Ministry of Construction, together with interested departments and regions, carried out an analysis of problematic facilities and compiled a list of long-term construction projects with a high degree of readiness.
Residents are waiting for these facilities due to their social importance. This is why we have made it a priority to complete them. There are about 2,500 such long-term construction projects across the country worth about 500 billion roubles. This is both from the regional and federal budgets, as well as the funds of large state-owned companies.
Mr Mishustin, as you said, the creation of a federal register, similar to the register of problematic shared construction projects, is one of the main areas of work to reduce the number of long-term construction projects. This tool will make it possible to focus on key facilities, for people to get access to them faster.
We will also focus on this register as part of creating and implementing the Federal Targeted Investment Programme.
First of all, we will complete the construction of unfinished and problematic facilities. The work associated with documenting, proper planning, and allocating additional funds, which we are now discussing in detail with the Ministry of Finance (and which we reported to you), all this, we hope, will allow us to reduce the work in progress, so that residents will get the facilities they are waiting for faster.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Khusnullin. I ask you to keep the creation of the register under your personal supervision, because long-term construction involves not only occupied land, but also funds frozen in these buildings and social problems that were supposed to be solved with the beginning of their operation.
There is one more topic.
The Government has prepared amendments to the state environmental protection programme.
First of all, there are issues related to building modern infrastructure for waste management. Now, regions will be able to obtain funds to enter into concession agreements and construct new facilities.
Many of them have difficulty attracting investors to work in this area and meeting the statutory obligations for co-financing from regional budgets. Therefore, the Government will provide a measure of support that will make it possible to reimburse the costs in the implementation of concession agreements.
A resolution to that effect has been signed.
In total, this year’s federal budget provides more than 26 billion roubles for the creation of waste management infrastructure.
I would like to speak separately about the general cleanup of the country from shipwrecks and the elimination of landfills.
We continue this work in a number of regions, including the Far Eastern Federal District.
Ms Abramchenko, you are in charge of this area. Please tell us what has already been done to clear the waters in the Far East.
Viktoria Abramchenko: Mr Mishustin, colleagues,
It is true that the General Cleaning project has been launched this year. In line with the President’s instructions regarding the cleanup, 20 billion roubles will be allocated until 2024, including over a billion for the recovery and disposal of sunken ships.
We have defined the priority criteria for raising such ships (there are only 213 of them in the project), and created a system in which “ship graveyards” will be a thing of the past. Thanks to the support of the State Duma and the Federation Council, administrative responsibility and a fine of up to 20 million roubles have been established for the deliberate sinking of a ship. Now deliberate sinking will become costly for ship owners.
This spring we began raising and dismantling ships in the Khabarovsk, Kamchatka, and Primorsky Territories. Of those scheduled for raising in 2022, 21 ships have already been raised and disposed of. In total, we plan to remove 62 ships from the waters of the Far Eastern Federal District by the end of the year. These ships are an obstacle for navigation and fishing, they damage the environment and reduce the tourism potential of the regions.
Thanks to the support of the Government, this year the regions will receive compensation for the cost of the general cleaning of water bodies. A draft directive has been prepared on the first round of compensation for actually incurred costs for the disposal of ships in the Magadan Region worth 26 million roubles.
The General Cleaning Federal Project does not stop at the water’s edge. We are carrying out a large cleanup on land, too. This includes abandoned industrial enterprises, wells, landfills, and other facilities that pose a threat to the environment and negatively affect the quality of life of our people.
This year, the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources and the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare are carrying out a comprehensive inspection of 192 sites across the country as part of the project. They are assessing their impact on the environment and on the health of people. Project documentation based on the inspection results is already being prepared to clear the first round of sites of accumulated waste in the Astrakhan Region, Chechnya, Kalmykia and the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic. We are talking about landfills, oil sludge pits and chemical storage tanks.
This year we have started to clean dangerous wells that remained after geological exploration. Following 2022, 60 wells of the unallocated subsoil reserve fund in the Krasnodar Territory are to be eliminated. All preparatory stages are completed. The contract was signed on July 4.
Mr Mishustin, the raising of ships and disposal of the material, as well as the elimination of sites with accumulated waste, are on schedule. I would like to note that the General Cleaning project is the most popular environmental project in Russia, which explains the regions’ interest in it: 82 Russian regions applied to participate in order to clean over 3,000 sites. Work on the environmental improvement of Russia will continue.
Mikhail Mishustin: Ms Abramchenko, thank you. I would like to ask you to monitor this issue and report to me on the complete results following the season.
When I travel to our regions and talk with heads of Russian regions and businesspeople, I also hear that this programme is in high demand. It is very important to bring both the governors and businesses on board to co-finance and implement specific plans for the general cleanup. It is absolutely clear that it is vital for the people living in the beautiful and picturesque places of our enormous country. It is simply necessary.