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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Khabarovsk Territory Governor Vyacheslav Shport during his tour of the Far Eastern Federal District

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Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: First of all, I'd like to thank you and your predecessor Viktor Ishayev for attending to the problems of healthcare facilities. It is thanks to you that the oncology centre is being modernised. And we've just visited the Federal Centre for High Medical Technology and saw that it's in a very good state. Please carry these projects through to the end.

I've told you before that some people were apprehensive about these projects at the outset. Many specialists at our largest centres in Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk argued that their time had not come yet. They said these centres would be short of staff since nobody would want to move to such a remote region.

Fortunately, these fears have proved to be groundless. People are moving here and good professional teams are being formed. These people are high-class specialists - without exaggeration. The medical centres are equipped very well. It's important that their employees and patients should feel the support of the governor, the mayor and the local authorities. That is the first issue I'd like to discuss with you.

Second, you've mentioned the airport. It has a pretty long runway. What needs to be done?

Vyacheslav Shport: The apron for heavy aircraft needs to be redesigned a little - it was designed for a different type of aircraft originally. We'll replace the runways to make them fully operable. We can do this. This is a federal runway, and we need 49 million roubles through the federal programme to change its design. If we receive this money in 2010, we'll be able to redesign it next year and prepare it for commissioning by 2012. This needs to be done. One airport in the Primorye Territory had to be closed 26 times this year, an airport in Kamchatka 17 times, and in Sakhalin 14 times. The airport of Khabarovsk never closed. The airports are facing these problems because of their location. It's no one's fault - they're just too close to the sea. Khabarovsk Airport offers a good opportunity for emergency landing. I'm sure you felt it yourself when you landed in Khabarovsk. It just needs to be made ready for the aircraft of the summit guests. As you know, Khabarovsk will host several summit events.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it's important to do all we can for the guests. The key thing is to avoid any inconvenience for Khabarovsk residents and visitors and to ensure that everything works well.

Vyacheslav Shport: Mr Putin, I would like to thank you for the decision made on discount passenger transport. It really works.

Vladimir Putin: How many people from the Khabarovsk Territory use this benefit?

Vyacheslav Shport: 31,000 people used this benefit to fly last year and 57,000 in the first six months this year, which means it's bound to be 100,000 passengers by the end of the year. Everyone is grateful to you for this.

Vladimir Putin: How is the economic recovery proceeding?

Vyacheslav Shport: We managed to increase the industrial production index by 29% after the first six months thanks to the measures implemented last year, especially in the defence industry - you signed several decisions and protocols in three key areas: the aircraft company, shipbuilding in the Khabarovsk Territory and Amurmetall.

Vladimir Putin: These enterprises were preserved and have favourable conditions for development, which is the main thing.

Vyacheslav Shport: Yes, of course. We saved the enterprises and the jobs they provided - tens of thousands of people are employed there. And now we have positive results: we have increased the state defence order by 170%, the companies' profits have soared by 150% and the budget has started growing. We resolved many budget issues, some of which were of utmost importance, in the first six months.

As for the unemployment rate, we had a maximum rate of 4.2% last year and 3.3% this year. There are around 25,000 registered jobless people now in the Khabarovsk Territory.

Vladimir Putin: It fell by one percent, even more than one percent.

Vyacheslav Shport: That's right. There are 17,000 vacancies per 25,000 unemployed, and that is a normal ratio. Unemployment is now under control. These unemployed are not people who cannot find jobs. These are people who want to find a job according to their qualifications. That is a normal process and the situation is gradually becoming stable.

Vladimir Putin: Is the established labour market support system functioning in your region?

Vyacheslav Shport: It is working very well. I would like to thank you. We received 357 million roubles last year and 257 million roubles this year. The government provides support, and the system works. This measure produced positive results both last year and this year. I would like the government to continue supporting us: it helped us resolve important issues concerning labour relations, retraining, and, most importantly, training and employment in rural areas and small towns. This measure is great.

Vyacheslav Shport: As of today, nearly 85% of schools are ready for the new school year. They are ready and the only outstanding matters are the official acceptance and other formalities. We will have completed the acceptance procedures by the end of this week. By September 1 all schools will be ready.

Vladimir Putin: Are you sure? Have you double-checked this?

Vyacheslav Shport: Yes. Just a week ago I held a conference call, so we are monitoring this issue. The thing is that some supervisory services have not yet had enough time to complete their inspections. This is our fault rather than theirs, because we could have presented the schools gradually over a longer period of time. Instead, in some places, they were presented ten schools at a time for inspection, which was more than the services could cope with. However, the process is underway. We have devised schedules in consultation with all the related services, including the fire inspection units and the Federal Service for Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management. That's why there is no doubt that we will complete this process in time.

Vladimir Putin: What do you think the most pressing issues in your region are?

Vyacheslav Shport: We are currently experiencing a problem with our remote northern districts. I have already asked you for assistance and you have helped. Places where it is impossible to establish major facilities face the issue of unemployment. Such unemployment is district-related. And I have already cited the statistics. While in Khabarovsk the unemployment rate is insignificant, at only 0.7%, and the same is also true for Komsomolsk, those districts, however, have higher unemployment rates.

We have developed certain proposals as to how this issue can be addressed. For example, there is a proposal to set up a gas liquefying facility, a standard-design small mobile plant, in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. This will help encourage people to stay there. We don't need to encourage people to move there, we only need to encourage local residents to stay.

Vladimir Putin: Right.

Vyacheslav Shport: This would actually be a great help.

Vladimir Putin: Let's discuss this and other issues.