Excerpts from the transcript:
Meeting of the Presidium of the Government Commission on Enhancing Economic Resilience to Sanctions
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
The Government continues its work to ensure the resilience of the Russian economy under foreign pressure. In response to unfriendly actions by some countries, we are making decisions essential for the support of our companies and our compatriots. Today, it is extremely important to promptly respond to their requests, helping them overcome current problems and difficulties.
It is necessary to pay special attention to agricultural producers that are successfully working for food security. The President emphasised that they faced new long-term challenges and, hence, it is necessary to provide them with adequate support measures and funds.
One of the Government’s new decisions is a resolution on easing terms for receiving grants for comprehensive scientific and technical projects in the agro-industrial sector.
We are amending the current version of the rules. It will be easier for the producers of feed and feed additives to secure funds. The same terms are granted to agrarians that are developing competitive varieties of flax and cotton or growing fruit and berries.
They will be able to use the grants for developing new domestic varieties of agricultural crops and plant protection products.
It is also possible to use grants to pay for the assembly of specialised equipment and instruments, including special laboratories and the purchase and installation of equipment for nurseries involved in the development of viticulture.
A relevant document has been signed. We hope it will create the necessary foundation for seed production and selective breeding and, of course, ensure the active introduction of high-intensive technology in the agro-industrial sector. Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev and I saw all this during our trips directly to the fields where these producers and researchers are working.
I would like to say more about the decisions that should help producers of grain. The Government specified the rules for distributing inter-budgetary transfers for its production and sale. This will allow agrarians to receive funds not only for the work done but also in advance, which is vital for them.
This year’s federal budget allocated 10 billion roubles for these purposes, out of which over 2 billion were sent to the regions. Now it is necessary to ensure the transfer of the remaining more than 7.5 billion roubles to agricultural producers as soon as possible.
The harvesting campaign is nearing completion in many regions. Some regions have already started sowing winter crops. The agricultural sector must have enough money to carry out these and other autumn works on time. This is even more important for grain production – an important component of the country’s food security and a key item of our exports.
We are taking a broad range of measures to support businesses of other industries to create the conditions for the further improvement of the economy and welfare of our compatriots.
During the past few months, the commission drafted and included into the priority action plan over 300 measures, the majority of which are already working effectively. They are gradually restoring the customer demand and increasing the turnover of businesses and organisations. We have also managed to preserve jobs despite the departure of many companies with foreign participation from our market. The lending volume is also going up owing to the consistent key rate reduction, bonus programmes and our coordinated work with the Bank of Russia.
Businesses have already received over 2 trillion roubles worth of loans, a quarter of which went to small and medium-sized companies. They are the hardest hit under the current conditions, and this support is crucial for them. We hope the companies of this sector will help replace the lost chains of suppliers from unfriendly countries.
We also introduced amendments to one of the soft loans programmes. They will allow businesses to receive easy loans for restructuring and developing their production at the current key rate – at 4.5 percent interest for small and micro companies and 3 percent for medium-sized companies. They are allowed to spend these funds on the purchase of equipment, major repairs of their premises or the launch of a new production line.
About 50 banks have already received dozens of applications for such loans worth a total of over 20 billion roubles and will start issuing them by the end of this week.
An important package of issues concerns imports support. The programme of concessional lending for the purchase of priority products has been in force since May of the current year. Over 260 agreements worth almost 150 billion roubles were signed during this period. The companies received loans worth 35 billion roubles for this purpose. They may spend them to purchase machines and equipment that are not yet produced in our country so as to continue their operation and resume steady growth.
Colleagues, during the past few months many of the adopted priority measures have proven their worth and may be extended. I will tell you briefly about some of them.
First, we increased the quota for advance payments for government purchases. This year, we raised it to half of the total payment sum if these funds have no treasury support. If they do, the figure will be from 50 to 90 percent. This allows businesses to receive quicker floating assets for starting work under contracts. In some cases, this rids them of the need to use substantial loans.
We suspended restrictions for retail networks on the purchase of shares in companies controlled by foreign owners until the end of next year. In the past, one network was not allowed to have more than a quarter of the total amount of commodity turnover on a certain territory. The temporary removal of this barrier will allow companies to continue restructuring their businesses and prevent certain difficulties in our commodity markets.
Colleagues, at the meeting on economic issues, the President drew our attention to the need to continue helping industries overcome the current difficulties. I suggest mapping out specific steps now. We must complete the targeted measures that have already produced the desired effect. We must extend the action of some decisions that we are actively discussing now with a view to continuing our work under long-term strategic planning.
Our priorities in this respect are to resume the dynamics of investment in the real economy, develop private initiative and, of course, fulfil our social commitments and support our compatriots.
