Transcript:
Meeting on more cost-effective management of land resources
Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,
Today, we will be discussing the cost-effective management of land resources. This is an important and complicated national issue, and, unfortunately, one that is almost eternal. It is common knowledge that many issues linked with the regulation of land resources have not been resolved to date. There are a number of legislative blank spots, and instructions regarding these blank spots have been repeatedly issued at all levels. Individuals and companies do not receive complete land-use guarantees, and, naturally, specific protection mechanisms also have certain drawbacks. Although we have made colossal headway in land legislation over the past 20 years, we still have a lot of work to do.
I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that some Russian legal entities, including public organisations, do not use their substantial land areas in the best way. We have repeatedly examined this, including looking into the state-owned Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. On the whole, we must rectify this entire situation.
Our country is large, and we have a lot of land. But, as usual, we don’t have enough land for construction projects, for low-rise buildings and for implementing investment projects. And, of course, it is very hard to find any relatively low-priced land plots in Moscow, the Moscow Region and all across the country. The national market remains largely non-transparent, and, of course, there are many speculative transactions.
We need to look into the confiscation of unused land plots, the classification of land plots in line with their designation and to ensure the cadastre registration of individual, privately-owned and corporate land plots.
We need a simple, clear procedure for the establishment of land plots and their allocation, rather than one that involves a lot of bureaucracy. And officials guilty of violating this procedure must be brought to account, and they must assume substantial responsibility. State and municipal land-supervision agencies also need to be strengthened. We must focus on the protection of farmland. No matter where I go, people always show me abandoned farmland which is not being used effectively enough. As a rule, these land plots are located just outside the city limits, and we need to make definite decisions on these. And, of course, there is also the issue of specially protected natural areas, where no projects running counter to their status should be implemented. A number of decisions and laws have already been passed on this issue. The Government Commission on Housing Construction Development and Evaluating the Effective Use of Federally Owned Land is working. Igor Shuvalov is dealing with this, right?
Igor Shuvalov: Yes, I am dealing with this commission.
Dmitry Medvedev: The integral open online resource of data on available and unused land plots is another important issue. The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) has been instructed to post data on all land plots available nationwide on the public cadastre map by February 1, 2014. As soon as this is done, it will become possible to make considerable improvements to land sales and purchases and to strengthen mutual trust between market investors. Colleagues, we have discussed a whole number of other tasks, including at our meetings on the state budget.
Let’s begin our discussion.
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