Agenda: Support for border regions, pensions for residents of new regions, and social development of centres of economic growth in the Far East.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Government meeting
Government meeting
Government meeting
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Before we get down to our agenda, I would like to discuss several decisions made regarding our border areas – the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, where people lost their property, and companies saw their regular production processes disrupted.
The President emphasised his special concern about the needs of the local residents and businesses operating in these regions, and gave relevant instructions to the Government. We need to respond to their problems promptly and without delay. Therefore, the Government is implementing a wide range of assistance measures, which include compensations that people can use to purchase essentials, as well as larger subsidies to finance the purchase of an apartment or the construction of a house.
To support local entrepreneurs, we established free economic zones in some of the border regions last year, where resident companies enjoy preferential lending, as well as a lower tax and insurance contribution payments, and zero profit tax on investment projects. The same preferences have now been extended to the municipalities where the counter-terrorist operation regime has been imposed.
We hope the decision made will enable businesses to cut costs, maintain operations, preserve skilled workforce, and launch the production of the necessary goods and services.
Today’s Government meeting agenda includes a whole range of items concerning assistance to Russian regions. We continue to make active progress on the integration of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. It is important that all social guarantees are fully accessible to their residents.
However, many of the local residents still receive pensions under regional systems, and not under federal laws. This can happen for various objective reasons.
These people certainly need our support. In the second quarter of this year, we will allocate more than 6.5 billion roubles for their pensions.
I ask the heads of the regions and the Social Fund to make sure that all payments reach the recipients without failure or delay.
Another important issue we will discuss has to do with the Far East.
Development of the Far Eastern regions is a priority for the Government, especially when it comes to creating comfortable living conditions for the residents.
Today, we will additionally allocate over 4 billion roubles to those regions for the next three years, but mostly for this year. The funds are intended for the implementation of social development plans for the centres of economic growth in the Far Eastern regions, in keeping with the President’s instructions.
These resources will be used to improve the areas around residential buildings and public spaces. The lighting system in Svobodny, Amur Region, has been modernised, as has the road to Minka, the village in the Primorye Territory where a mega-science class research facility is being developed. Another part of the funding is intended for the modernisation of a greenhouse complex in Chukotka.
Mr Trutnev, please keep the spending of these funds under review to make sure they reach the regions on time and all the planned measures are carried out accordingly.
