Mikhail Mishustin: “It is important to continue expanding national production in the transport sphere. We also need to continue converting the sector to digital platforms, and, of course, we need to continue to educate skilled personnel.”
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at the strategic session on transport
We continue with our series of strategic sessions on the long-term development of key economic sectors. Today, we will discuss our objectives in transport under today’s new conditions, including our mid-term and long-term plans. This will allow us to achieve the President’s national development goals .
A consistent effort in the transport sector is a mandatory condition for any state to operate efficiently, and this especially includes a large state like Russia.
It is important to achieve positive changes in all areas, despite the challenges imposed by the actions of unfriendly states. We need this to ensure a good life for millions of Russian citizens, to develop the sector and the entire economy and to maintain this country as an important part of the global trade system.
The increased external restrictions have also affected civilian aviation. Unfriendly countries have closed their air space, and there are some questions regarding high-seas, road and railway routes.
The Government has adopted a number of decisions for reducing the negative impact on the sector. We envisaged substantial assistance under this high-priority action plan. The amount of this assistance exceeds 500 billion roubles (about 511.5 billion), including over 120 billion for supporting the aviation sector. We made this decision at a meeting with the President.
These and other steps have reduced the impact of the sanctions on the entire sector. In the first five months of 2022, freight traffic volumes continued to grow, showing a nearly 2 percent increase or 1.8 percent, to be more exact.
We have retained our air fleet that has over 1,200 aircraft, and some continue to fly abroad. Russia’s aircraft manufacturing industry is set to build over 1,000 new planes of different types through 2030, including short-, medium- and long-range airliners, as well as regional planes.
We still need to chart our future priorities for this sector, and most importantly, we need to modernise it.
We need to make continuing progress in the interests of passengers and freight companies as stipulated by our Transport Strategy, to fulfil our obligations in the field of transport mobility and to make the territories of our large country more accessible and interconnected.
Today, we will also discuss the main goals and directions of developing an integral basic transport network, including the five-year programmes that will be linked with global logistics corridors connecting Russia with the south and the east. Expanding ties with friendly states is a key factor in modernising various industries, including agriculture and the energy sector.
It is important to continue expanding national manufacturing through transport. I mentioned aviation, but we will also need ships, modern railway rolling stock using Russian components, as well as lorries, public transport systems and construction equipment.
We also need to continue the sector’s digital conversion to reduce costs, expedite freight and passenger traffic and as a tool for ensuring a more efficient work flow. And, of course, we need to educate skilled personnel constantly to retain the sector’s workforce under this external pressure. We need to equip our universities and vocational training schools with modern Russian-made simulators and technology, and we need to involve young people in transport engineering initiatives.
