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.”
"We will make sure that the regions follow the demands of those laws that have been introduced: a faster transformation of the housing sector, co-financing from the regional and local budgets, and focussed and effective use of the resources allocated. We will focus on resource and energy saving, which implies the installation of water, gas and heat meters in houses and flats, because the people must pay only for what they really use, not for what the bills say. Only by doing this will we develop civilised relations between producers and consumers in the housing and utilities sector, raise the quality of service and ensure an affordable level of the tariffs in the sector."
"In medical terms, this problem can be described as a chronic disease of the economy and social sphere. I am referring to the housing and utilities sector. It would seem that these problems are better left as they are, because the people's complaints are legitimate, and the sector has improved, but not much, at first sight. On the other hand, unless we address these problems and discuss them publicly, we will never solve them. We should act in accordance with the Russian proverb, "What the eyes fear, the hands do." We must keep working on these problems, and the more complicated a problem, the more publicly we should discuss ways to solve it."
"Much has been done in the past few years to transfer the sector's enterprises to new operating conditions and introduce modern mechanisms of managing the housing stock and providing social assistance to the people. <...> As many as 79 regions are taking part in the programmes of the Fund for the Housing and Utilities Reform, with 7 million people to improve their housing conditions within these programmes. As of now, 120,000 people have received or will soon receive new flats. By doing this, we will quickly advance toward implementing the goal stipulated in the guidelines for the Government's operation until 2012, when we are to liquidate dilapidated housing."
"The resettlement of people from dilapidated housing and more active efforts to overhaul other buildings implies the creation of over one million jobs in construction and related industries. This is a major anti-crisis measure in the current conditions aimed at combating unemployment."
"Much has been done in the previous years in the sphere of training personnel for Iraq in diverse areas. We also discussed it today. Many thousands of Iraqi specialists had been trained in the Soviet Union and Russia. Today too Iraqi students study at our higher education institutions. Cooperation in that sphere can and undoubtedly will expand."
"Iraq has been our reliable partner for many years, and we have a good history of relations. The last decade has seen a great amount of mutual work between our two countries. We are keen on seeing Iraq flourish, becoming a strong, independent, sovereign and united country. There is much we can do to develop our bilateral economic ties. Our companies have sound experience of working with our Iraqi partners. This cooperation is a very good asset for the future."
"Regarding business and investment links, I think it is clear to everyone that the emphasis was above all on cooperation in the oil and gas field. Here, just as in the power sector, considerable positive experience of cooperation has been accumulated. We have noted the interest of our Iraqi partners in resuming military and military-technical cooperation. These negotiations are already at the stage of practical contacts and I believe that full-scale negotiations may well be resumed."
"We are going to allocate 2.9 billion roubles to one of the largest engine building companies, the Chernyshev Moscow Machine Building concern, which will allow it to retain its workforce of 7,000 people, and ensure the completion of major export orders."
"The electricity shortfall was one of the obstacles to industrial development and the realisation of a series of major projects. The cost of connection to the grid was prohibitively high, and that, in turn precluded the realisation of many long-term investment projects, as I have already said. This issue is particularly sensitive for small and medium sized businesses. In today's crisis conditions, demand for electricity has fallen slightly, and many regions of the Russian Federation are forming reserves. But this is clearly a temporary phenomenon. The restoration of sustainable economic growth is impossible without the development of the energy systems, without deep-rooted modernisation of the aging equipment, without the construction of new power stations and the development of the grid. In 2008 we added two GW of capacity, which is as much as was introduced during the previous two years, 2007 and 2006, together. It is very important that this pace is retained in the coming three years. This requires something in the order of 1.8 trillion roubles of investment."
