Agenda: Summing up the outcomes of the Small Towns and Historical Settlements forum, subsidising preferential educational loans, performance review under the summer youth heath campaign.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Dmitry Chernyshenko’s performance report on the summer youth heath campaign
Excerpts from the transcript:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting on current issues with deputy prime ministers
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin: Colleagues, good morning.
Last week, the forum titled Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements took place in Kazan. This event offers a platform for discussing key topics dealing with improving regions and offering people there a better living environment. Importantly, it showcases the meaningful changes in the way people live there, and how our cities and communities are evolving.
When we toured the exhibition, city heads from towns like Rybinsk, Bavla, and Staraya Russa talked about how they and their teams delivered on this mission, including thanks to the National Best Project for Creating a Comfortable Urban Environment Competition. They also talked about changing the way their cities look and developing their economies. I must mention that they all started with small undertakings and used the grants they won in this contest to get the ball rolling.
As usual, we also review the forum’s results on this occasion. This year, there was an effort to fine-tune the rules for awarding grants with the view to enabling more communities to create appealing and people-friendly public spaces.
Winners included a team from Solnechny, a city in the Khabarovsk Territory. We really liked their project to build the Naslediye (Heritage) Sports and Patriotic Park. A team from Kostroma presented its project to rebuild Volga’s embankment. There was a very interesting project the Burelom by a student team from Donetsk People’s Republic’s Novoazovsk to reshape the coastal zone.
Territorial improvement really matters for people in the new regions despite all the challenges they face. At the forum, we discussed opportunities for creating a special award category for communities in these regions. This will serve as an incentive to get used to submitting more projects as part of a national process to use these competition-based mechanisms.
We paid special attention to drafting urban development master plans. Carried out as per the President’s instructions, this initiative presents a radically new approach to promoting comprehensive territorial development and improving the quality of life in every Russian region. This is why we must move as quickly as possible to create a solid legislative framework for these documents.
Colleagues, it goes without saying that we must keep a close eye on this matter.
Let us now turn to the decision on higher education which has been taken.
What we want is to consistently improve its quality while also making it better accessible. For that, we have been carrying out a broad range of measures. The President has said that young people must have opportunities for learning a profession by using preferential educational loans with the lowest possible interest rate.
To deliver on this task, we have been carrying out a programme over the past five years to enable students to benefit from long-term loans carrying an annual interest rate of 3 percent. We have been earmarking the necessary budget funds for the banks to subsidise this low interest rate.
Hundreds of thousands of students received the degrees of their choosing already as part of this undertaking. We will now allocate over 2.5 billion roubles to this effect, which will be enough to help about 214,000 students.
One more thing. Colleagues, we are to evaluate what has been done for organising children’s summer recreation and health improvement. Holidays are ending and we can review preliminary results.
The President has highlighted the special importance of ensuring the high quality and safety of children’s recreation.
We are addressing this matter through an infrastructure modernisation programme, among other things, such as renovating the existing and building new accommodation facilities for the younger generation, as well as updating cafeterias and medical stations.
This year, the modernisation projects extend to more than half of Russian regions, to make sure millions of children can enjoy comfortable outdoor holidays.
Mr Chernyshenko, tell us more about the children’s health improvement programmes organised this year.
Dmitry Chernyshenko: Mr Mishustin, indeed, the summer is ending. This year, as per your instruction, we have conducted extensive work in cooperation with regional officials and government bodies to organise safe and comfortable recreation for children.
We began preparing for a summer health improvement campaign in good time. Members of the State Duma and Vyacheslav Volodin personally showed high engagement.
As you noted, the key issues included modernising camp infrastructure, exercising stricter control over food and medical service quality, and organising health improvement and educational events.
In summer, children have plenty of opportunities to do sports, engage in science and creative activities to unlock their potential and develop talents. This is a national goal set by President Vladimir Putin. Education and upbringing are built on the basis of our moral and spiritual values approved by the President’s executive order.
Over 62 billion roubles in consolidated funding have been allocated for the summer health improvement campaign. Additional 255 residential modules for 12,500 places have been built by 2025. This became possible thanks to your support and Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko’s initiative. Some 100 facilities, including cafeterias and medical stations, have been renovated.
Overall, around 40,000 children’s summer camps of different types have been open across Russia this summer, offering recreation to over 4.5 million kids. We have particularly supported 180,000 children of special military operation participants and 85,000 schoolchildren from the new constituent entities. The patron regions alone have hosted over 15,000 children from Donbass and the new regions, offering them the opportunity to enjoy a safe and comfortable holiday.
Almost 90,000 children from the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk have been able to improve their health. Over 1 billion roubles have been allocated from the Government’s reserve funds for the recreation of children from the Belgorod Region. Mr Mishustin, I would like to thank you for this initiative.
Almost 30,000 children, including 1,500 from the new regions, have visited the best federal children’s centres. This year marks the centenary of the Artek International Children’s Centre. The flagship celebratory event, the “May There Always Be Sunshine” festival, was attended by 3,500 children from every Russian region and over 30 foreign countries.
Artek’s infrastructure continues to expand. This year saw the opening of a branch of the legendary camp, Red Carnation, in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye Region. We plan for this facility, which has already hosted 850 children, to become a permanent, year-round platform for children’s recreation.
This year also saw two other children’s centres – Orlyonok (65 years) and Smena (40 years) – celebrate their anniversaries. Nationwide competitions, themed days, and special events were held to mark these occasions.
Mr Mishustin, thanks to your support, the University Sessions educational and tourist programmes continued their operations this year. Supervised by the Ministry of Science and Education in partnership with the Movement of the First, the programmes have hosted almost 15,000 schoolchildren, including 6,000 from the new regions.
Furthermore, the Summer University programme has completed its fifth season under the national Youth and Children project. This year’s participation exceeded 1,200 students from 44 countries.
This summer’s health and recreation initiative is now nearing its end. We will review the full results in October with the participation of all regions.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Chernyshenko. We must now prepare for the next season, building on the work done this year and planning collaboratively with the regions. Given that millions of children take part in these camp programmes, this requires efficient budgeting and a mindful approach within the limits of our budgetary obligations. If necessary, we can support the regions in this planning process.
We should also continue to monitor the progress of children’s health and recreation initiatives in the border areas and new regions. The children living there require special care, and we may need to examine these issues more closely.
Now we need to prepare for the next season, grounding in the work done this year, and planning together with the regions. Obviously, with millions of children taking advantage of camp programmes, this requires, among other things, an efficient budgeting, mindful of the limits of budgetary obligations. If necessary, we can help the regions with this planning.
We should certainly continue to keep under review the progress of children's health-boosting initiatives in border areas and the new regions. The children living there require special care, so, perhaps, we need to look at these issues more closely.
