A change in the structure of the Cabinet of Ministers, rules for granting subsidies for university-based start-up centres, changes in public procurement rules to stimulate the manufacture of recycled products, subsidies for the transport of agricultural produce by rail.
Opening remarks by Mikhail Mishustin:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Before we move on to our main agenda, I would like to say a few words about an important change in the structure of the Cabinet of Ministers.
On Tuesday, the President signed an executive order introducing a new position, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade. Denis Manturov was nominated for the post, and the proposal was sent to the State Duma for consideration. He is a professional with extensive experience.
The domestic industries are facing a high-responsibility task - not only to maintain output at the present level, but also to ensure the transition to local production of the goods the country needs within a short time frame.
Now, in the context of unprecedented sanctions, decisions have to be made and implemented fast. All industries are struggling with various restrictions and prohibitions. And we need to respond as flexibly as possible to these trends.
Mr Manturov, I know that you have already got in touch with the leaders of party factions in the State Duma, and deputies are to vote on your nomination tomorrow. We wish you good luck.
Now a few words about the decisions taken. The first of them has to do with state support for student technological entrepreneurship.
The Government has approved regulations for providing subsidies to set up startup studios at 15 Russian universities and to develop and popularise them.
Thanks to this initiative, young specialists and scientists will be able to acquire essential business skills, to put their engineering solutions into production prior to graduation and to implement specific business projects.
The current three-year budget provides 4.5 billion roubles for this purpose. They are establishing startup studios under a strategic initiative to implement the University Technology Entrepreneurship Platform approved by the President.
We discussed the importance of such projects during a working trip to Tomsk State University. These projects will make it possible to involve more young people in science and technological activities and innovations, to develop the Russian economy’s high-tech sectors and to create jobs at the most in-demand production facilities.
One more document deals with environmental matters and the use of recycled waste, an important aspect of environmental protection.
We are specifying state procurement regulations for various goods in order to motivate producers to turn out more goods containing recycled waste. We compiled a list of them taking into account proposals from the regions.
Agencies procuring these goods, including paper items, repair and improvement materials, soft surfaces, organic fertiliser, etc., under state and municipal contracts will have to specify the share of recycled waste used for their manufacture.
We have signed the relevant resolution.
We hope that this approach will motivate businesses to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and to bid more actively at procurement tenders.
Today, we will also review support for Russian farmers. We will allocate an additional 700 million roubles as compensation for reduced railway shipment tariffs, and this will make it possible to deliver 500,000 more tonnes of freight.
Last year, the Government considerably expanded the range of freight shipments under reduced railway tariffs and their geographical scope. For example, these tariffs also apply to stations in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. We have extended the duration of these benefits until late December.
We can see that this kind of support is highly popular with farmers, who received 3.2 billion roubles by early June. This accounts for 75 percent of earlier approved budget funding.
We hope that extra funding will make it possible to support agricultural producers and to even out food price fluctuations. This will therefore facilitate more stable food deliveries to Russian shop counters.
