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:
Putin: Shall we begin with your visit to Vancouver or regional projects?
Kozak: Regional projects. We are now monitoring the socio-economic situation in Russia's regions. Working jointly with the working group that monitors the situation on the housing market, set up by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, we have been monitoring the main trends, above all in the economy, since last October. We are coordinating the process to be able to take prompt anti-crisis measures. The main goal of our efforts and the measures that have been taken is to preserve jobs. This is the goal of federal targeted programmes, the Investment Fund, and the Fund for the Development of the Housing and Utilities Sector. Even the Olympics is above all a method of preserving jobs.
Putin: Why do you say "even the Olympics"? The Olympics is a priority project. How many people should work on its facilities?
Kozak: Some 12,000, but I was referring to the effect of the Olympics on the other Russian regions apart from the Krasnodar Territory. Taking into account the results of monitoring the employment situation, I have sent to all head of the Russian regions instructions to set up construction companies.
Putin: So, 12,000 are employed there, and how many will it be together with the people working in related spheres?
Kozak: We have sent proposals with a tenders schedule even to ailing construction companies, so that all of them would take part in the competition. This is spurring competition for contracts and creating jobs. The 12,000 construction workers is a lot, and the subsidies allocated from the Fund for the Development of the Housing and Utilities Sector will save up to 1.5 million jobs.
Next, the Investment Fund, the regional projects we have approved and inspected will create up to 20,000 jobs this year. I think that preserving jobs is the main anti-crisis measure of social assistance in the current situation.
As for the Olympics, experts from the International Olympic Committee have recently finished an inspection visit to the site. They were shown all construction schedules and charts, and discussed all aspects of the project.
Putin: I remember it.
Kozak: Everything is so far proceeding according to plan. Next year Sochi is to officially receive the Winter Games flag, and this is the main reason for my visit to Vancouver, Canada, where we discussed the procedure. Besides, we inspected the results of preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics there, which are in their final stage.
Putin: We must cut construction costs.
Kozak: We are monitoring the problem, and I planned to speak about it. We have finished drafting an Olympic Heritage programme, which implies the use of the facilities after the Games, and have coordinated it with all concerned departments and the Krasnodar Territory administration. We think that the facilities after the Games should be used to boost the territory's development and tourism. This allowed us to formulate investment proposals for four types of facilities.
The training facilities for the Russian athletes, including Paralympic athletes, will be located in the Imereti Valley. At the same time, we can build a water park and a multirole sports centre there - this will also benefit the investors.
These proposals will be presented at MIPIM 2009, the world's premier real estate summit to be held at Cannes, France, on March 10-13. Russian investors have shown interest in the event. The decision on these sports facilities alone will save budgetary allocations of up to 25 billion roubles.
Putin: We will save money by attracting investors. What I had in mind was to cut the real cost of the project because prices of construction materials have fallen.
Kozak: We have done this; we have recalculated spending for all facilities based not only on the approved plans and expense accounts, but also on the experience of similar projects. As a result, we have cut spending under them by 15%.
State expertise is working on budget-financed projects very efficiently. It has established that the funds requested for the four sports facilities with the completed design plans and cost accounts exceed the real needs by 7.5 billion roubles.
Such examination of all projects allowed us to save 300 billion roubles for the budget last year.
