Transcript:
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Artamonov, I congratulate you on an important event for the region, because it is always good to create a new production facility: it means new jobs, a production culture, and the Volkswagen culture is at the very highest level, and most importantly, it creates new jobs.
Anatoly Artamonov: Thank you, Mr Medvedev.
Dmitry Medvedev: I hope all will be well. I was right in saying at this ceremony that investors are always very discriminative – they come to some places and they stay away from others. They come to the Kaluga Region; you have created many production facilities and jobs in the past few years. Can you elaborate a little on what has been happening this year and in recent years?
Anatoly Artamonov: Mr Medvedev, I once attended an EU session, and a colleague of mine there said: “Investors are like hares – they graze and are calm, but if you throw a stone they scatter in all directions.”
Dmitry Medvedev: So far you have not thrown any stones at investors.
Anatoly Artamonov: No, thank God. We are doing our best to maintain this situation. It is very hard work, on a daily basis. We have to take into account all the circumstances. Around 10 years ago we had this idea of creating industrial parks. Why? Because it is easier to resolve all sorts of bureaucratic problems in industrial parks. It is easier to tackle issues…
Dmitry Medvedev: Common infrastructure…
Anatoly Artamonov: …on extending land plots, creating the infrastructure and conditions for companies' joint work in industrial parks in this region so that they can resolve various problems. They can use outsourcing and services supporting various operations. Its is very convenient for small businesses to collect together in one area.
In the past five or six years, we have attracted on average $900 million in foreign investment and $1.2 billion in domestic investment [per year].
Dmitry Medvedev: Domestic investment.
Anatoly Artamonov: Yes. And this year our total investment will amount to around 81 billion roubles. This is pretty good. However, this is not the limit…
Dmitry Medvedev: There’s no limit to perfection but on the other hand it's an impressive figure.
Anatoly Artamonov: Yes.
Dmitry Medvedev: And what is it? Is it creating any jobs?
Anatoly Artamonov: With this investment we have created about 22,000 new jobs and we currently have no unemployment in the region. Every individual who wants to work has the opportunity of doing so.
And of course, and this is very important for us, we have practically tripled the fiscal capacity for every resident. If we take this coefficient (which is 1 ideally), we started at 0.32, and currently it is 0.96, in other words we have tripled it. By the end of 2014 we will have… The Finance Ministry has already warned us that we will not get any grants for equalising fiscal capacity.
Dmitry Medvedev: A cause for celebration.
Anatoly Artamonov: Yes. Of course, we are not happy with this decision, but we are learning to resolve various problems independently.
We have significantly more money than certain neighbouring regions perhaps and we have the resources to plan bigger allocations for road construction, repairs and maintenance. Because our fiscal capacity has grown. In our region, the average salary has risen for the seventh consecutive year, just behind Moscow and the Moscow Region. And if we look at the social sector…
Dmitry Medvedev: What is the current average salary in your region?
Anatoly Artamonov: Currently it is 23,000 roubles. The average salary for a teacher is 24,000, for a doctor it is 33,000, and healthcare employees get on average almost 20,000, 19,700 I believe. The average pay for a kindergarten teacher is just over 10,000 roubles per month – this is the established minimum wage in our region. Why? Because [utility] rates are on the increase – so we need to pay decent wages.
If we continue to attract investment, and we are working on this… Currently the whole world is seeking investment.
Dmitry Medvedev: Absolutely. Especially during a crisis.
Anatoly Artamonov: On the whole, we have nothing to worry about. We just have to work hard.
Dmitry Medvedev: To conclude our talk and returning to the hares that you mentioned, look after your grazing hares so that they do not take flight.
Anatoly Artamonov: We will do our best.
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