Mikhail Mishustin: “It is essential that people have the broadest possible access to comfortable and affordable travel options for both business and personal trips, and that businesses have the necessary resources for more efficient cargo transportation.”
A strategic session on the Industrial Support for Transport Mobility national project
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
We are continuing our series of strategic sessions. Today, we will focus on enhancing industrial capacity to meet the President’s objectives for improving transport mobility.
This initiative is a key component of the broader efforts we are systematically pursuing to achieve the updated national goals set forth in the President’s May executive order.
It is essential that people have the broadest possible access to comfortable and affordable travel options for both business and personal trips, and that businesses have the necessary resources for more efficient cargo transportation. Achieving this requires strengthening our own expertise and expanding production capacities, ensuring full technological sovereignty in relevant economic and industrial sectors. This is the only way to effectively modernise our existing fleet under the current unprecedented sanctions pressure.
Modern domestic innovations will play a crucial role in effectively linking the vast regions of our country, improving the quality of life for citizens and increasing the overall stability of the Russian economy. The President and the Government are placing heightened emphasis on the development of all modes of transport: air, water, rail, and road.
Due to the construction and modernisation of infrastructure, transportation is experiencing dynamic growth, with new routes being opened and travel time reduced.
The industrial sector has significantly contributed to these achievements. In the first half of the year, manufacturing production grew by 8 percent. Notably, the output of passenger cars increased by two-thirds, diesel locomotives by nearly one and a half times, freight cars by 40 percent, and buses by approximately 20 percent.
To accelerate the development of breakthrough technologies and their application in these sectors, it is crucial to enhance the transport industry’s appeal for investment and to leverage public-private partnership mechanisms.
This was a key consideration in the preparation of the national project, which will be launched next year. The project will be founded on innovative approaches to the creation of high-tech products.
Let me elaborate on the priorities of this project.
One of the key avenues that we plan to support under a separate federal project is airplane and helicopter construction.
The President instructed us to significantly increase the number of domestically produced airliners, which are to account for at least half of the Russian airlines’ fleets by 2030.
This task concerns a wide range of aircraft, from small regional jets to wide-body models, including proprietary materials, on-board equipment, engines, and other components.
A lot of work remains to be done to expand serial production of helicopters in order to fully meet the target indicators and Russian companies’ needs. We have all the necessary resources for this.
To this end, we will finance the production and procurement of aircraft, including by tapping the National Wealth Fund, and we will make extensive use of the tools to stimulate demand for new equipment, including assistance in creating an after-sales service system.
The next important area is building ships for various purposes, maritime equipment and related components and equipment. We need to specifically focus on building icebreakers for year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
Russia will step up efforts to build a civilian fleet that will meet the existing demand across the board, including export shipments. In response to the modern challenges, we are almost done updating the strategy for the shipbuilding industry’s development.
The updated objectives will help fulfil the President’s instruction to intensify traffic along international transport corridors. Over the next five years, the volume of shipments should grow 50 percent compared to the 2021 level.
Developing innovative transport infrastructure can spur the development of our regions. Another federal project we are forming today will be dedicated to this.
The construction of several high-speed railways began this year in line with the President’s decision. I will remind you that the first of them will connect Moscow with St Petersburg.
Rapid progress is being made in electric vehicle manufacturing, and autonomous driving technologies are being improved as well.
I would like to note that such initiatives should help cut down emissions of hazardous pollutants in cities. Their volume must be halved by 2036 in accordance with the Environmental Well-Being national development goal.
Naturally, Russian industries will need a large number of qualified professionals to implement all of our plans, and over the next six years, total employer demand in Russia will reach about 150,000 specialists, including almost 75,000 with university degrees.
The national professional training system should adjust performance to cater to the industries’ demand. We will focus on its effective operation as part of the fourth federal project, Personnel and Staffing. One of its priorities is to develop the infrastructure for engineering projects – including experimental, research, design, and laboratory facilities.
Colleagues,
I suggest discussing in detail today what specific steps and measures will be included in the new national project to ensure transport mobility.
Another important priority is to align our carriers’ demand for equipment with the capabilities of our equipment manufacturers. Finding this balance will require well-coordinated and seamless work of all departments and agencies.