VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Mezentsev, what is the performance for the first half of the year? What are the socio-economic situation, budget balance and social issues in your region, above all with respect to healthcare and education? How are you preparing for the start of the new academic year on September 1 – have you already begun preparing? How is the healthcare modernisation programme being carried out in your region?
Dmitry Mezentsev: Mr Putin, at our parliament’s final meeting of the spring session in late June, we adopted unprecedented amendments to the regional budget totalling 6.4 billion roubles. This was a comprehensive and consistent effort, with disputes and discussions that took place in close partnership with local parliament members, including the regional branch of United Russia. At the same time, as a governor that does not belong to any party, of course, I am obligated to listen to proposals from other political and parliamentary parties.
More than 2 billion roubles will be set aside as additional support for targeted programmes that are crucial for the region. We increased inter-budget transfers to 3.4 billion roubles. Of this amount, 1.2 billion roubles will be allocated to maintain and increase pay for government-paid workers throughout the year.
We have completed a complex dialogue with the regional association of trade unions and commercial partnerships. As a result, the minimum pay was increased to 4,611 roubles on May 1. This hasn’t happened in a long time. In the same agreement, we also determined to increase the minimum pay to 5,121 roubles starting September 1. This increase includes the North-South differentiation, which means that the minimum pay for government-paid workers of the North is over 7,208 roubles as of May 1, and will be over 8,000 roubles starting September 1.
Mr Putin, in discussing this significant increase in our budget spending, we agreed that this money will not be simply wasted – this will be an investment in infrastructure, a tangible support for the government sector and for the renovation and reconstruction of social facilities. We set aside more than 653 million roubles for healthcare facilities. Moreover, we will spend almost 200 million roubles to provide new housing for people living in dilapidated houses along the Baikal-Amur Railway – we are authorised to do this, we put aside these funds ourselves.
I was grateful to my colleagues for supporting the initiative to build 50 recreation houses in almost all municipalities of our region – we set aside 100 million roubles for this.
We also increased spending on the Affordable Housing for Young Families programme.
I don’t mean to bombard you with figures, but I would like to point out one more in particular. Apart from feasible budget support for agricultural producers, this year we suggested that they present to us those investment projects that will receive support from the regional budget. These investment projects were supposed to ensure a supply of goods to the market, create new jobs and bring budget revenues, rather than only facilitating growth in certain areas. We promised them favourable funding options designed for a period of up to five years. In all, we received about 1,250 applications and selected 107 of them. We let the authors of these projects know that the 358 million roubles is only the initial support. Naturally, we worked in cooperation with non-governmental organisations that represent rural areas, which act as institutions to support best practices. However, we still have a lot to do for our rural areas.
We have also provided for increasing spending on the municipal police – we increased it by 100 million roubles during this session alone. We also purchased 40 satellite communication kits for forestries and Emergencies Ministry units, as well as increasing direct spending.
Vladimir Putin: Let’s return to healthcare modernisation and the corresponding plans. Do you have a plan for this? Has it been approved? What investment does it require?
Dmitry Mezentsev: Mr Putin, we thank you for this initiative, not only because I am reporting on this directly to you, but also because it drew a powerful response in healthcare and among our residents who truly wish that our healthcare system were up-to-date.
We initially expected to receive a little over 4.4 billion roubles – this is the general amount approved by the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development. We managed to defend for our programme more than 8.2 billion roubles. We expect to receive 2.7 billion roubles this year, which is a substantial amount. The other day, we met with healthcare workers to discuss performance in the first half of the year, and presented our regional government’s grants to the best doctors of our region. We have a system such that each doctor who has proven his competence receives a grant of 100,000 roubles. Our approach was that we cannot simply paint facades or buy equipment without a clear understanding that this equipment is needed in a particular municipality. We defended our programme publicly, and we are convinced that this money will not be wasted, especially given the principles of transparency, efficiency and basic volume…
Vladimir Putin: Has your plan been approved?
Dmitry Mezentsev: Absolutely. It has been thought through thoroughly…
Vladimir Putin: Don’t forget about healthcare in rural areas.
Let’s move on to modernisation of secondary education. How do you intend to prepare for the beginning of the new academic year on September 1? At what level will the teachers' pay stand?
Dmitry Mezentsev: We have not forgotten this issue, Mr Putin – for us, this is not simply a point that the prime minister raised once, it is a direct order. Our entire network of schools, all 1,052 of them, will be switched to the new pay system starting September 1. Unfortunately, this work was slightly postponed in our region, because we were supposed to do more within the related national project, but we are catching up. Based on signed agreements we can predict the following – the average monthly pay will be increased to between 17,500 and 17,800 roubles by the end of December. Currently, school teachers are paid on average 13,400 roubles with the average pay in the region at 20,723 roubles. So, mostly with the use of budget funds, teachers’ pay will reach 80% of the average pay of our industry by the end of the year.
Vladimir Putin: You mean, your economy’s average?
Dmitry Mezentsev: Yes, exactly.
Vladimir Putin: And when will teachers’ average pay reach the economy’s average level?
Dmitry Mezentsev: Mr Putin, next year it will…
Vladimir Putin: Where do you expect it to stand by the end of the year?
Dmitry Mezentsev: We estimate that it will reach 17,800 roubles in December.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
