Agenda: Expanding the list of technologies for signing special investment contracts, improving the rules on receiving state support as part of the social programme to connect households to the gas distribution network, the results of the Best Municipal Practice nationwide competition.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Marat Khusnullin’s report on the results of the Best Municipal Practice nationwide competition
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good morning, colleagues.
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
First of all, I will speak about the government instructions that have been signed. They are related to the development of serial production of competitive products that do not have Russian-made alternatives yet. This is especially important given the sanctions and restrictions.
To that end, we will expand the list of advanced technologies which allow companies that develop or introduce them to sign a special investment contract with the state to receive tax concessions, subsidies and other preferences.
Some 70 solutions will be added to the list, including in the field of radio electronics, pharmaceuticals, the chemical sector, medicine, machine-building, the fuel and energy sector, metallurgy and some other areas. This will attract more private funds for the development of our own high-tech equipment. For instance, the list includes equipment for early diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors which will help to significantly reduce the amount of time spent on surgery. By the way, at a meeting with the President last week, we had a detailed discussion related to the treatment of cancer in Russia. Overall, these measures will help accomplish the scientific and technological development goals that were outlined by the President.
Let us discuss another decision we adopted that is designed to make it easier for certain groups of our citizens to receive state support as part of the social programme to connect households to the gas distribution network. The President has emphasised the importance of connecting all houses to a gas supply in villages and cities where there is a main gas pipeline.
The Government has been working on this for over two years. In particular, it offers subsidies to people so that they can purchase the necessary equipment faster and begin the work of connecting their land plots to the gas network. This assistance is also provided to Great Patriotic War veterans and large low-income families. This year, over 1.5 billion roubles has been allocated for this purpose, which means over 18,000 contracts between the people and gas suppliers.
It is important to note that the cost of connecting varies from region to region. In practice, it happens in some regions that the first installment is lower than the subsidy, which is now more than 100,000 roubles. In such cases, people have to repeatedly ask for funding. To that end, to simplify the procedure and payment for connecting to the gas supply, we will improve the rules of delivering budget funds to the regions. The Government has prepared a relevant directive.
Subsidies will be also provided to those who sign a supplementary agreement for the completion of work to connect to the gas distribution network. We will also simplify the conditions for the use of equipment, including boilers, meters, stoves and so on.
All these measures will help provide state assistance to more people in an expedited way and implement the President’s relevant instructions in full.
There is another issue. The Government continues to support the regions that create comfortable conditions for their residents, especially in small communities.
The President noted that local self-government, the level of public authority that is the closest to the people, plays a huge role in dealing with everyday issues. He also said that the best management teams should be encouraged. To that end, the Best Municipal Practice nationwide competition is held every year. It aims to identify projects that are important to people and that have a successful track record in terms of implementation. The contest includes urban development, improvement, modernisation of the housing and utilities complex, introduction of smart city technologies and the development of important tools such as as feedback from citizens.
The federal commission has summarised the results of the seventh competition. Mr Khusnullin, please tell us about this year’s best practices.
Marat Khusnullin: Mr Mishustin, colleagues.
The Best Municipal Practices annual all-Russia competition has been held since 2017. It is aimed at developing the municipal economy, urban planning policy, digitalisation of the urban economy, promoting the competent management of local finances, and effective feedback from residents.
The participants here have successfully implemented projects to address issues important to citizens in various sectors of municipal governance organisation. The winners are awarded cash prizes, which are used for further development.
The entire competition period included 6,229 municipalities, 245 of which won awards.
We see that Russian cities and rural settlements are working to improve and enhance the quality of life for their citizens, as evidenced by the annual increase in applications for this competition. This year, municipalities from 78 regions submitted more than 1,300 applications. This is almost 10 percent more than last year. And this is the biggest result for the entire competition period.
This competition is one of the most effective tools in promoting best municipal practices. The competition winners’ projects are published in online lists, which are posted on official websites and sent to the regions. The replication of these successful experiences is designed to help promote comfortable living conditions for people throughout the country.
I would like to note that the Government is engaged in systematic work for the development of settlements, and the national competition Best Municipal Practices is only one of the tools.
In general, by 2030 we must fulfil a number of strategic objectives and national goals as set by the President of Russia. Among them is to improve the quality of the urban environment by one and half times. And we are going step by step to fulfil this goal.
Thus, within the framework of the national project Housing and Urban Environment, a lot of work has been done to create attractive urban spaces. Since 2019, more than 62,800 territories have been improved in Russia. Of these, 26,400 are public spaces and 36,400 are courtyard spaces.
Not only large, but also small settlements are changing their appearance. Since 2018, we have held a nationwide competition for the best projects to create a comfortable urban environment in small towns and historical settlements. During this time, more than 500 winning projects were implemented in the regions.
We pay attention to ensuring that residents are involved in the comprehensive transformation of their cities and towns. A good example of their direct participation in creating a comfortable urban environment is the all-Russia online voting for improvement projects. The people themselves choose parks, embankments, squares, streets, squares, courtyards and public spaces to be improved first. This year was record-breaking in terms of the number of people who voted, at more than 14 million.
To create comfortable living conditions for citizens, the regions also apply various infrastructure development tools which are combined in the infrastructure menu approved by the Government. For example, we are modernising the housing and utilities sector, including by attracting preferential loans from the National Welfare Fund. Regions also use infrastructure budgetary and special treasury loans, which are used not only to modernise the infrastructure of the housing and utilities sector, but also to implement popular projects to build schools, kindergartens, outpatient clinics, roads, and upgrade public transport.
Despite all the challenges, we are working towards the balanced development of settlements at all levels – from municipal to federal. For this purpose, we use an integrated approach to solve urgent problems.
An important part of this approach is support for the best municipal practices. The experience presented at the competition is of great interest due to its functionality, efficiency and innovative view of creating comfortable living conditions for people. It provides a foundation for the development of other municipalities and gives an impetus to dynamic progress.
Mikhail Mishustin: It is important that such programmes can then be applied in other municipal and urban districts and settlements around the country. And the local leaders together with the residents offered their new interesting and necessary ideas.
