The agenda includes: The President's instructions to the Government following the SPIEF; the New Strategy for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry; benefits for the participants in the special military operation and children of medical workers who died from Covid-19 applying to universities; and support for agricultural universities in the Far East.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
During the plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, President Vladimir Putin outlined the key areas of work and gave a number of specific instructions to the Government.
They concern the support of our citizens and businesses.
Starting next year, the minimum wage will be increased by 18.5 percent, which will have a positive impact on the incomes of about five million people. Payments for a child aged up to 18 months and a single child allowance must be provided for the entire period of time for which they are assigned, regardless of how family incomes change.
In education, we will have to set criteria for the effectiveness of educational institutions and every year prepare a five-year forecast of the need for human resources to meet the demands of the economy.
In order to encourage employment, we will develop a training agreement tool. It will improve employees' skills and retain specialists in production. Focus should be placed on regions with high unemployment levels to help people learn new specialties there.
It is also important to support people who are making their first steps in business. For example, participants in the social contract should have the opportunity to receive state-funded additional training in entrepreneurial skills at the My Business centres.
The President has given special attention to the tourism industry. At the previous Government meeting, we decided to finance the construction of modular facilities in the regions. We will allocate an additional 11 billion roubles for these projects in the next two years. We will also expand state support in issuing soft loans for large amusement parks and water parks that are to be open year-round. This should influence the hospitality industry and the regional infrastructure positively.
President Vladimir Putin also dwelled on the tasks of a proactive economic policy in great detail. We will draft and implement this policy in cooperation with the business community.
We need to continue creating favourable conditions for investors and exporters and finding resources for investing in major projects that have system-wide significance. We are also working to repatriate assets, including by reregistering businesses in special administrative districts.
Regarding exports, we will extend the current support tools until 2030, as per the President’s instructions, and we will draft decisions for insuring exports to foreign markets.
We will have to launch a package of measures for supporting the e-commerce sector, primarily measures for small and medium-sized businesses. This is to help them find clients or customers in Russia and in other countries.
It is important to reduce any excessive load on our businesspersons. We need to suspend scheduled and unscheduled inspections, except high risk activities that can harm users or the environment. We will replace them with preventive measures, and we will formalise the legal requirements that only the related agency can conduct such inspections.
The President also suggested declaring an amnesty for businesses that violated foreign currency regulations during the moratorium. This will make it possible to reduce the load on businesses while the external restrictions remain in force.
The development of a model of essential conditions for conducting nationwide business operations is another area.
We will update the project to transform the business climate in the high-tech business sector, and in tourism and other spheres.
Colleagues,
It is necessary to do everything we can to implement these instructions. I would ask you to work them out promptly within your competences, and personally monitor their implementation. Each area is aimed at improving the quality of life for our citizens and developing our country’s economy.
A few words about the decisions taken.
The Government has approved the Strategy for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry until 2030. The President emphasised that steady work in this sector is of great importance to the entire country, for providing our citizens with accessible and quality medicines.
The strategy is designed to, first, increase Russian-made high-quality effective and safe drugs to provide them to people and the healthcare system.
Under the current challenging conditions, it is crucial to support our own full-cycle manufacturing in the pharmaceutical drug industry. In the next eight years, the share of Russian made drugs in our market must increase to almost 70 percent. To reach this objective, we will promote the research, development and production of drugs, raw materials, equipment and parts, as well as develop the necessary research, technological and professional competences.
It is important to create a favourable investment environment for Russian companies, to assist them in implementing projects to develop and manufacture drugs in priority therapeutical areas. And, of course, to boost sales of the products of our pharmaceutical companies, including abroad.
Ms Golikova, please, tell us about the results that need to be achieved as part of the strategy.
Tatyana Golikova: Mr Mishustin, good afternoon. Good afternoon, colleagues.
The production of medicines in all key segments of the pharmaceutical market is currently underway in Russia.
According for the Federal Service for State Statistics, the output of Russian-made drugs in 2022 was at almost 608 billion roubles. This is a 533 percent increase compared to 2009, when the previous strategy was adopted. As compared to 2021, it is an 11 percent increase.
Due to the development of Russian production, 62 percent of all drugs used in Russia are manufactured in the country now.
We have the technological capacity to produce 667 international non-patented names of the 815 crucial and essential medicinal drugs, which is 82 percent.
As you said, the Strategy for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry until 2030 is designed to further improve the accessibility of medicinal drugs, to increase the production capacity of Russian-made drugs, and to establish technological independence from foreign producers.
This includes nine complex tasks. Let me point out the most important of them.
The first area is increasing domestic medicine production, including the creation of our own (original) medicines. Now manufacturers are more focused on the production of generic medicines. Of the 815 drugs on the list of essential medicines, originally developed drugs are represented by only 269 international non-proprietary names, of which Russian manufacturers hold registration certificates for 103 names.
In this regard, when providing support, we are set to give priority to fully localised medicines, as well as to manufacturers of original medicines, to conclude various formats of long-term contracts for the supply of medicines and other support measures. We developed a list of the highest priority medicines in 2022. It includes 189 names, and this will expand as domestic production develops. Now 14 medicines from this list are already being produced.
The next area is to improve the quality of medicines produced in Russia and supplied to our country, and to improve the quality control system. We will continue to intensify the review and inspection of medicines not only at the registration stage, but also during sale and circulation.
The third area is the expansion of our own production of pharmaceutical substances and raw materials for producing medicines, including as part of measures to develop small-scale support manufacturers of chemicals and substances.
And the fourth area to point out is the further improvement of pricing for medicines that are included on the list of vital and necessary drugs, in order to prevent unreasonable cost increases.
For this, a medium and long-term forecast of the healthcare system’s need for medicines will be developed, as well as further implementation of mechanisms for preventing a shortage of medicines in the country, which were worked out in 2022 after the sanctions were imposed.
This strategy will make it possible to double medicine production in the country by 2030 to almost 1.4 trillion roubles, and, as you said, to achieve a 70 percent rate of domestic production of all medicines produced, dispensed and sold in the country, medicines of high quality and efficiency.
Mikhail Mishustin: We need to make all the necessary decisions as soon as possible for the comprehensive implementation of the strategy and the goals we have set.
Ms Golikova, another topic. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin addressed the Government with a number of significant legislative initiatives, including a proposal to provide participants in the special military operation with benefits when entering Russian universities. We discussed this in detail with him. The issue is extremely important. Tomorrow, the admission campaign for applicants to Russian universities begins.
I know that you and Dmitry Chernyshenko have done a great deal of work in this area. I would like you to elaborate on it.
Tatyana Golikova: Together with Mr Chernyshenko and our colleagues from the federal executive bodies, and with the respective committees of the State Duma, as you have instructed, Mr Mishustin, we have worked out the State Duma Speaker’s proposal regarding university admission for those in the special military operation, as well as the children of medical workers who died during the coronavirus period. As a result of these discussions, we came up with the following proposals.
First, the participants in the special military operation will be able to enter universities for their chosen specialties and areas of study under a separate quota based on the results of the entrance examinations. Those who are already studying wityh a tuition fee will be given the opportunity to switch to free education as soon as the 2023/2024 academic year as a matter of priority.
In order to do so, the Government is vested with the authority to establish the procedure for the redistribution of vacant budgetary capacity at universities.
Second, children of medical workers who died due to COVID-19 in the line of duty will be enrolled in universities for educational programmes in medical and pharmaceutical education, also under a separate quota, but without entrance examinations.
And third, participants in the special military operation and children of medical workers who died due to COVID-19 in the line of duty will also be given the right to study at the preparatory department free of charge.
After the discussion and development of these resolutions, we and our colleagues from the State Duma will develop them for final legislative formalisation and adoption.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you.
Ms Golikova, Mr Chernyshenko, please control this effort and coordinate the work with the deputies, especially the implementation of this law once it comes into effect.
Colleagues, let us move to increasing effectiveness in the agricultural complex. Our production requires highly qualified specialists, including in the Far East. The president noted that agricultural education should be filled with up-to-date content so that young people have every opportunity to get advanced knowledge and profession in demand, and to take part in promising research and other projects.
In order to do this, the Government will allocate 100 million roubles to two universities that are educating the necessary people for this work in rural areas. The money will be granted to the Far Eastern State Agrarian University and the Buryat State Agricultural Academy.
These universities are educating professionals in agriculture, the food processing industry, and a number of other industries. They are also engaged in the selection and seed production of cereals and soybeans. Also, among other areas, a platform for medicinal plant cultivation is being created in order to produce effective and high-quality medicines.
We believe that these subsidies will help improve the quality of student training so that the agricultural complex in the Far East, which is developing intensively, receives young competent specialists who know the local peculiarities well.
