Agenda: reducing interest on preferential investment loans for agricultural companies; supporting developers of gas liquefaction equipment; expanding the programme to compensate temporarily closed airports for operating expenses; additional funding for the construction and upgrade of infrastructure facilities.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Colleagues, good afternoon.
Our working trip to the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts ended yesterday.
We had a big meeting in Yakutia, where the discussion focused on the prevention and relief of natural disasters. The presidential executive order requires senior regional officials to take care of reducing the area affected by wildfires in their regions. The Government will closely monitor how the President’s instruction is being implemented. We will analyse how effective the region’s efforts are. We will continue to support Russian regions in their efforts to prevent and extinguish forest fires, as well as to restore infrastructure destroyed by other emergencies.
I would like to bring the following to the attention of the heads of ministries and governors. Natural disaster relief requires coordinated action at all levels of government. This is the only way to protect people’s lives and health and minimise possible damage.
Today, many digital projects are being implemented in Yakutia, which may well be scaled to other regions. In particular, they have to do with medicine and education. I am asking the ministers of healthcare, education and digital development to pay attention to such projects.
Another issue we touched on was food security in the Far Eastern regions, that is, making fresh and high-quality locally produced food available to people all year round.
We examined some plans for the development of one of the year-round greenhouse farms in Yakutia. We discussed this earlier, during a trip to Chukotka. A decision was made to partially compensate companies for the costs involved in building such complexes in the Far Eastern District. Now these projects are expanding there.
It is of the essence to create the most favourable conditions for businesses that are ready to build such cutting-edge infrastructure in the northern latitudes. I will instruct the Ministry for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic and the Ministry of Agriculture to explore the possibilities of adjusting financial mechanisms for this macro-region.
We also visited the Republic of Altai, where we held a meeting with business people on developing the tourism industry. The autumn phase of the programme for compensating part of the cost of trips within Russia has been announced. It will start in a week, on 25 August, and will cover travel from 1 October to 25 December.
As a result of the meeting with the industry representatives, we issued a number of instructions, including on efforts to improve the availability of rail transport, such as routes organized by tour operators, as well as new and promising areas for domestic tourism.
Colleagues, our common goal is to make travelling around the country comfortable and safe. To do this we need to respond effectively to people’s demands and to take the tourism industry’s proposals into account in our work.
We also visited the Trans-Baikal Territory. In Chita, we talked to the residents of the Trans-Baikal advanced development territory. The government has expanded its boundaries, which will make it possible to build a new residential district with schools and other social facilities.
We have also received feedback from investors on the industry’s needs. I have issued instructions to carefully study the proposals and problematic issues.
During the visit, we also took decisions on targeted assistance for the regions, such as repairing the infectious disease ward at the Altai Territory's Maternity and Child Welfare Centre. In Yakutia, we will co-finance the construction of a new school and complete construction of the regional oncology clinic. In the Trans-Baikal Territory, we will allocate funds for purchasing medical equipment and the complete refurbishment of the regional hospital we visited during the trip. All this is very important for local residents.
Of course, successful development of the Far Eastern Federal District is impossible without better transport connectivity between its regions. This requires an extensive route network and affordable prices. We have seen how Aurora Airlines provides inter-regional transportation. We see that people are increasingly using this alternative: the number of passengers on the subsidised routes has doubled. It is important that these airfares have become available to the Far East residents and will continue to be available.
Colleagues, I would like to ask you to work promptly on all these instructions after your trip to the Far Eastern and Siberian federal districts.
Before getting to the main agenda, I would like to say a few words about the decision to support the agriculture complex. As the President noted, the industry is developing at a good pace and with quality output.
The Government is making subsidised loans more accessible to help businesses in this sector increase production.
Agricultural enterprises will be able to take out loans to produce and process agriculture-related raw materials, as well as to purchase refrigerated containers, which will make it possible to promptly deliver perishable products over longer distances.
Agricultural producers will have access to preferential investment loans at a rate of up to 5 percent for terms of two to 15 years and will be able to apply for short-term loans at the same rate. The relevant resolution has been signed; it considers the needs of the agriculture complex, which ensures our food security and supplies people with high-quality products.
Now to the agenda.
The diversification of exports is one of the main areas for the development of our energy sector. We recently discussed this at a specialised strategic session.
We should be able to expand exports, including through accessing promising markets for liquefied natural gas. At the same time, in addition to finding new customers, we also need to develop domestic production of critical equipment. A list of requirements for this was created with input from key customers and includes 18 priority areas.
The government will support developers and allocate up to one billion roubles to compensate for the costs of research and engineering work with the use of advanced technologies.
This funding will support the launch and partly cover the costs of four projects on developing LNG equipment for medium and high-capacity production this year.
The development of our capacities in this area will help resolve a range of tasks and support this relatively new sector in the Russian energy industry, as well as launch industrial platforms, create new jobs and continue moving towards the national development goals set by the President.
Another question concerns assistance for the southern airports and some airports in the Central Federal District where flights are temporarily restricted.
The President instructed us to support their teams during this forced downtime so they can quickly resume operations. It is now very important to keep highly qualified specialists and equipment in these locations.
We will expand the operating cost compensation programme for them by almost 2.5 billion roubles.
We must continue to closely monitor transport accessibility and connectivity between Russian regions. Additional train and intercity bus services have been started to all cities with suspended air traffic so people can get to their destinations, and businesses can establish supply chains for the uninterrupted delivery of goods and cargo.
Today we will also consider allocating an additional 100 billion roubles this year for the construction, renovation and overhaul of a number of important facilities.
This instruction was given by the President at a meeting of the State Council Presidium.
This funding will make it possible to implement road and infrastructure projects throughout the country, as well as to build medical, cultural and educational institutions.
The allocated funds are necessary to complete the planned work on schedule.
