"The Government has been focusing on the modernisation of education and healthcare, efforts to improve the demographic situation, the quality of life and the fulfillment of our social obligations."
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Meeting on the implementation of Presidential Executive Orders Nos. 596-606 of 7 May, 2012
Good afternoon. As agreed, today we’ll discuss the implementation of the Presidential Executive Orders of May 2012. Understandably, these documents set extremely ambitious goals, but we must focus on achieving them for the sake of national development. Of course, the documents set long-term goals. It will take several years to achieve most of them, that is, up to 2018. But today we should clarify what has been accomplished, what problems exist, and what should be done in the near and foreseeable future.
This year, we have addressed such issues as the drafting of regulatory documents, methodological issues and detailed planning. This approach has made it possible to chart specific priorities, to link industry restructuring programmes and regional development programmes and to identify what resources will allow us to accomplish these objectives. This is possibly the most complicated part. Nevertheless, we need to ensure the transparent spending of budget allocations and, consequently, to monitor the implementation of all this.
I’ll outline several items which, in my opinion, deserve to be discussed, but this doesn’t mean that other items are necessarily secondary.
First, I’d like to discuss the social sector because this is the most sensitive issue. The Government has been focusing on the modernisation of education and healthcare, efforts to improve the demographic situation, the quality of life and the fulfillment of our social obligations. We have stated this, while drafting the Policy Priorities of the Government, and we’ll continue to address this issue in the future. At the same time, it’s very important to improve the system of payments for social services, and to continue implementing a programme to raise the salaries of public sector employees. We need to modernise the pension system and the housing and utilities sector. We have approved a number of measures, and today we’ll discuss what else should be done.
Dmitry Medvedev: "We pay a lot of attention to support for families with children. This year, in addition to current benefits, 65 regions have introduced monthly benefits for the birth of third child until he/she reaches the age of three."
We pay a lot of attention to support for families with children. This year, in addition to current benefits, 65 regions have introduced monthly benefits for the birth of third child until he/she reaches the age of three. We stipulated federal budget allocations for regions with an unfavourable demographic situation. Unfortunately, there are 50 such regions, which account for the majority of Russia’s territories. Therefore the number of third and subsequent childbirths has increased by over 10% nationwide on 2012. This is a good figure, and indeed, it has been achieved throughout 2013.
The allocation of free land plots is another aspect of support for families with many children. As you know, it was also quite hard to draft this law, but nevertheless, we managed to reach an acceptable agreement. I hope that this draft law will be submitted to the State Duma in the near future.
The situation with infant mortality rates also continues to improve gradually. To be honest, this situation has been improving nationwide over the past seven years, or so. In the past few years, we have converted to new criteria for assessing viable infants in accordance with World Health Organisation standards. Therefore the number of infants who died before reaching 12 months has decreased considerably in half of the regions. In some regions, the number has plunged by over 70%.
Dmitry Medvedev: "The allocation of free land plots is another aspect of support for families with many children. As you know, it was also quite hard to draft this law, but nevertheless, we managed to reach an acceptable agreement. I hope that this draft law will be submitted to the State Duma in the near future."
The shortage of kindergarten accommodation is another problem for families with children. Unfortunately, this is a well-known problem, but it must be eliminated before 2016. Construction volumes are rather impressive. As you know, last year, or this year, to be more exact, the Government set aside an additional 50 billion roubles to upgrade regional preschool systems, plus nine billion roubles more. In all, this was 59 billion roubles, which is quite a lot. So, about 350,000 young children will be able to attend kindergarten. And, naturally, their parents will be able to work. We’ll continue this programme, and we have discussed this.
Investment is part of the budget, the volume will be lower than last year (I mean, this year), but we probably will try to increase it following the first quarter given that the revenue side of the budget allows for that.
Dmitry Medvedev: "Тhe Government set aside an additional 50 billion roubles to upgrade regional preschool systems, plus nine billion roubles more. In all, this was 59 billion roubles, which is quite a lot. So, about 350,000 young children will be able to attend kindergarten. And, naturally, their parents will be able to work."
There is a positive trend here: in nine regions, there are no waiting lists for kindergartens, or the lists are short. This means that the problem is being addressed on a consistent basis. In 12 regions, the queues have been practically eliminated: fewer than 1% of children are on the waiting lists. This is a large-scale goal, but I must stress that we need to address it in such a way that the regions know that we are concerned.
Let’s get down to some macroeconomic issues. We have repeatedly addressed them both as part of the executive orders and aside from them. The complicated situation on world markets was caused by the existing risks and by the situation in the Russian economy. We often address this problem, but the issue of creating sustainable economic development remains unsolved. The key factors are increasing workforce productivity, modernising production facilities, creating highly effective jobs and training high-skilled specialists. Of course, we need to work with the relevant ministries, companies with state participation, business in general and the regional leaders.
Dmitry Medvedev: "The key factors are increasing workforce productivity, modernising production facilities, creating highly effective jobs and training high-skilled specialists."
The second issue concerns the creation of conditions for a massive investment inflow in the production sector. This also turned out to be a challenge this year, but we have outlined the mechanisms for investing funds from the National Welfare Fund and pension savings, the order of conducting independent technology and pricing audits. Given that public control is needed, we should work on the investment programmes of companies with state participation and infrastructure monopolies. We will consider these plans after the experts have worked on them. We recently discussed Russian Railways’ plans and we will do the same for other companies.
The implementation of 10 roadmaps is being carried out. In addition to the Government, experts and the business community are concerned about their implementation, as well as control and licensing procedures. This is an evaluation standard for federal ministries, agencies and regional heads.
Let me remind you that a year ago, we adopted a decision to develop regional investment standards. Most regions are using it. Now we are developing regional standards for competitive development.
For over a year, we’ve been working in the Open Government format. We have gotten used to it, more or less, and it seems to be a pretty useful tool. Dozens of draft laws and state programmes have been considered by the public, and this is important both for the people and, more importantly, for the quality of the documents. In any case, the issues related to the implementation of the executive order are under my personal control and the control of my colleagues from the Presidential Administration. It is important not only to adopt draft laws – we can do that pretty well – but also to make sure the implementation is accompanied by positive changes all over the country. This, in my opinion, is our short-term goal. Let’s talk about it.
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