The agenda includes the results of the nationwide vote for improvement projects, support for advanced industrial initiatives, rules for subsidising the renovation and construction of treatment facilities in the regions, and the execution of the federal budget in the first quarter.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Government meeting
Government meeting
Government meeting
Good afternoon, colleagues.
We celebrated Russia Day this past weekend. This holiday unites all those who love our Motherland, and who work for the sake of its well-being and prosperity, who help cope with difficulties and defend the country against threats, who are sincerely concerned about the places where they live, study, work and create families. All of them are citizens of our country.
In the past five years, nationwide voting dealing with regional improvement projects show that people are concerned about their respective cities. Quite recently, we also noted at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects that our citizens were focusing on measures to forge a people-friendly urban environment, and that more and more of them were noting positive changes everywhere.
On 12 June, we summed up voting results using an online platform on the government services website. The latest voting involved over 16.5 million people. Over 6,000 of their proposals have been taken into account and will subsequently be implemented.
Local residents know better than anybody else what parks should be improved or where there is a shortage of public gardens for leisurely strolls, where it is necessary to build additional playgrounds and sport facilities and how to improve public spaces in the best way possible. The leadership of municipalities will have to heed the opinion of citizens, while improving the local environment.
These referenda provide a favourable opportunity for making cities and towns more comfortable for life and more people-friendly.
Mr Khusnullin (addressing Marat Khusnullin), it is now necessary to implement all projects that have been selected, in a good quality and on time. As usual, I would like to ask you to personally monitor this issue.
Before we start discussing the agenda, I would like to mention a decision for supporting advanced industrial initiatives. As the President has noted, modern production facilities and jobs should be created everywhere, in all regions of the country. For this purpose, the Government is using the widest possible range of tools and methods.
Recently, we discussed the existing mechanisms for introducing research results and creating promising products with technical university students. And, of course, we analysed this in detail at the Digitalisation of Industrial Russia conference in Nizhni Novgorod and at meetings with the heads of development institutions.
We continue to create new opportunities for Russian businesses all along.
A directive has been signed on allocating 20 billion roubles to the Industry Development Fund which accounts for nearly 2,000 projects and 500 billion roubles in investment. The additional funds will be used to grant preferential loans to another 50 businesses that are going to create over 1,000 new jobs, primarily in the engineering industry, chemistry, metal-working, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries, to wit, branches included in the perimeter of national projects designed to promote technological leadership.
Importantly, the government-funded projects should reach the goals set by the head of state within the endorsed timeframes. Their results are needed by related sectors, among others. The objective is to commercialise Russian competitive products. It is also extremely important to create breakthrough R&D results and a basis for further development.
Yet another topic is how to help Russian regions.
We have drawn up rules on providing and distributing subsidies for the construction of sewage purification works.
In his Address to the Federal Assembly, the President has set the task of cutting the pollution of the main bodies of water by 50 percent. We are working on this within the framework of the Environmental Wellbeing national project and the Water of Russia federal project. As of this year, we are planning to allocate almost 70 billion roubles for these undertakings.
The Government has devised a procedure for selecting and distributing subsidies for these purposes.
Moreover, we will choose environmental projects with account taken of existing priorities, focusing on public utilities at pivotal populated localities, including the Russian Far East and the Arctic, as well as the new constituent entities.
The regional active construction and renovation of wastewater treatment facilities is another important criterion. This work must be carried out using local funds, either through regional budgets or by attracting extra-budgetary financing.
It is essential to maintain rigorous oversight of the implementation of these initiatives, as people’s health of and broader environmental wellbeing of the country depend directly on water quality.
Today we will also discuss the report on the execution of the federal budget in the first quarter.
The budget continues to rely primarily on non-oil and gas sectors, such as manufacturing, agriculture, and services, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of all revenues. This is especially significant in the context of ongoing volatility in the global oil markets. Over the first three months, the GDP grew by 1.5 percent year-on-year. Investment volumes also grew.
Advance payments were frontloaded into the beginning of the year to provide necessary proactive financing, including creating conditions for enterprises to sign contracts. As a result, expenditures reached slightly more than one-quarter of the total annual budget, contributing to a more predictable and uninterrupted cash execution.
Social payments were also made ahead of schedule, including payments to families with children, as well as pensions and benefits for senior citizens.
Colleagues, the budget is crucially important for the development of the country and implementation of the president’s tasks to ensure sovereignty in all spheres and achieve technological leadership in the crucial sectors.
I believe the results of the first quarter provide a solid foundation for the next period. It is important that we maintain this positive momentum and uphold strict fiscal discipline.
