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
“Support from Russian citizens has always helped us, and I’m confident that the government’s future line-up will rely on the people. We must never forget about the needs of ordinary people. We must always remember how government-level decisions influence the lives of all ordinary Russian citizens.”
"There are no clear-cut relations between federal and regional government and administrative bodies to regulate agribusinesses. This particularly applies to prompt responses to local outbreaks of veterinary diseases. Precious time is impermissibly wasted on mutual shifting of responsibility and interdepartmental correspondence. And during this process, losses for producers are growing along with budget expenditures to deal with the consequences of these emergencies. I believe that today we should make comprehensive decisions for reforming the system of veterinary and phytosanitary oversight, including by amending federal legislation and departmental normative acts".
"There is no need to explain how important safety is for the production and sale of food products. However, for all its external appearance of reliability, the existing system does not guarantee either full or the most effective quality control. <…> The fact is that the regulatory system for agribusinesses is creating problems for honest producers. Those who smuggle illegal or poor quality goods into the Russian market, including imported products, easily circumvent these requirements and find themselves in a more beneficial position. They are making undeserved profits, and, what is the worst, threatening the health and even lives of consumers".
"Ultimately, regulatory agencies must address actual threats, protecting the lives and health of people and protecting the market against low-quality and dangerous products and services. In addition, we must continue reducing administrative barriers, increasing the transparency of our regulatory policies and getting rid of vague legal standards, which swindlers often take advantage of".
"It is not by pure chance that we have made the development of command, communications and reconnaissance systems one of the priorities of our defence programme, with considerable budget appropriations planned for these purposes. I would like to stress that we need to modernise existing units and systems fundamentally. We must admit that they have become obsolete, with their technological and technical conditions often leaving much to be desired. This is why our short-term objective is to provide the armed forces with new-generation equipment, making a big step forward. I want you to be guided by this objective".
"1 we began the first stage of pension reform, which essentially entails the so-called valorisation, or adjustment, of pensions for those citizens who earned them during the Soviet era. Moreover, now a pensioner's pension cannot be below the subsistence level, no matter where he or she lives. In this context we must resolve another important problem. Together with the regions, we must establish a mechanism for providing additional social payments to bring pensions up to the subsistence level wherever necessary".
"Poultry breeding has been developing fast in the past few years. It posted a 12% growth in 2009, and now we can satisfy over 75% of the demand. But we still have to import nearly 25%, which is too much. However, I want to say again that we are working hard to replace imports. I hope that government support has contributed to this trend; we have allocated long-term investment loans for the construction of farms and subsidised interest on loans".
"You know that the new law on trade has come into force, stipulating strict deadlines for payments to the suppliers of agricultural products. We have set the strictest deadline for perishables, 10 days, I think. I hope this measure will have a positive effect, and will help to strengthen the financial situation of agricultural enterprises".
"Of course, efforts to replace imports are not an end in itself, as I have said more than once. We will succeed only if we replace imports with goods that are completely safe, of a high quality and, importantly, sold at affordable prices. Both producers of agricultural goods and consumers - the Russian people - should benefit from this".
"In 2010, companies with annual revenues below 60 million roubles will be able to begin using simplified taxation schemes. This is an important policy for the support of small business. But along with that, we must pursue other policies to stimulate entrepreneurship and create more jobs. This remains an issue of high importance for this year".
