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.”
“The State Duma is currently considering a law on applying the world’s best environmental practices not only to the construction sector, but also to other industrial sectors. While working on this law, we drew from the best global practices and cooperated with international experts. I hope very much that it will be adopted by the State Duma in the near future and will be implemented in practice.”
“We will modernise available industrial clusters and create new ones. At the same time, the creation of complete-cycle enterprises, the siting of high-tech enterprises in Russia, and the creation of modern jobs will become a key principle of our cooperation with foreign investors. We proceed from the premise that up to 25 million modern jobs must be created nationwide in the next few years. This is a substantial amount for Russia. Although this doesn’t mean that all jobs must be absolutely new, all available jobs must be upgraded to a considerable degree.”
“For 17 years, the Foreign Investment Advisory Council has undoubtedly established itself as an effective and authoritative partnership between the government of the Russian Federation and our esteemed foreign colleagues and the foreign business community. The council has earned a reputation not only for collecting information about issues pertinent to the Russian economy, which is important by itself; it also plays a direct and active role in forming the business climate in the Russian Federation, conducts investigations and analysis, and formulates clear recommendations – first and foremost, recommendations to the Russian government agencies at various levels.”
“I would like to highlight that many foreign investors regard our council as a kind of gauge of the Russian business climate, and the opinion of the council members about working in Russia is often the deciding factor in the decisions of our partners on whether to launch a new business or invest in a particular project in the Russian Federation.”
“Today, Russia has a larger fleet of rail cars than the Soviet Union, but we still carry less cargo. And there are also problems of a clearly systemic nature. <…>Russian Railways itself must act in a more timely manner. The Tariff Service has been instructed to calculate an appropriate rate so no private company bears any losses. Russian Railways bears no losses, but instead operates with a profitability rate of at least 10% – and maybe a little more – somewhere around 15%. However, work must begin now.”
“I would like to ask you to prepare a draft government resolution that would include monetary compensation for all specialists who qualified to receive these benefits for the whole period and pay it all out retroactively in 2012. In addition, it must also introduce social support measures for all federal medical workers employed in rural federal medical facilities.”
“We have decided to limit the growth of fees of the majority of natural monopolies next year. This should restrain the growth of prices in the housing and utilities sector. I’d like to reaffirm that this is the government's principled position, and it will not be reviewed. This is why I consider it inadmissible when some officials say that amendments or adjustments are possible.”
“We have conducted an in-depth inspection of the state’s oversight and surveillance functions over the past two years and removed many administrative barriers in education, healthcare, agriculture, construction, and some others. <…>Last year we approved the concept for forming the single national accreditation system. They proposed establishing a shared body vested with the requisite authority in this area. Today we will look into regulations governing the work of such a body, namely the Federal Accreditation Service. It will be engaged in establishing rules for professional organisations regarding certification, test labs, and expert organisations.”
“The development of Russian-Chinese relations both in foreign policy and economics has an undoubted effect on the welfare of our people. That is why we attach such great significance to their promotion. In this context, contacts are important not only between heads of state and government, but also between the parliaments of our countries.”
“We want to join the World Trade Organisation. This is our goal and our objective. In our opinion, this would have a generally positive impact on the Russian economy, mostly because it will increase the level of trust in the economy, and on the administrative and legal procedures within the economy.”
“We will create incentives to promote closer industrial cooperation, working to forge promising technological alliances, to implement infrastructure projects, and to increase mutual capital investment. Our aim is to diversify trade and economic ties between our two countries. We have already developed a whole set of tools to carry out such tasks, including the Investment Cooperation Plan and the Programme of Interaction between Regions of the Far East, Eastern Siberia and Northeastern China.”
“We’re also planning to lay new energy routes. As you know, the Skovorodino-Daqing oil pipeline has been pumping crude oil since January 1, 2011. Russian and Chinese companies are beginning to work together to locate and develop new oil and natural gas deposits, including on the continental shelf. We’re already nearing the final stage of our work on natural gas supplies to the Chinese market. Preparations are underway for the construction of a large oil refinery in China’s Tianjin.”
“I think everyone would agree that given the current difficulties in the world economy, in the United States and in the European Union, Russian-Chinese cooperation plays a stabilising role and benefits both our economies and our nations.”
“In the course of our 16th prime ministerial meeting, we discussed in detail some of the recent issues of bilateral cooperation in almost every sphere. Our talks today reaffirmed the truly strategic nature of our relations. The political dialogue between the two countries continues to advance, the horizons of their cultural exchange are expanding, and their economic and regional cooperation is growing stronger.”
“The development of infrastructure in general and roads in particular is very important for any country, any economy and perhaps is an issue of prime importance for Russia. However, we can see that road construction in such remote parts of Russia as the Far East or eastern Siberia is also extremely important because once they are in place, they will have a multiplier effect on the regional development in general.”
“One of our priorities is to establish a strong basis for innovation in the defence industry. For this reason, we intend to spend some 20% of the funding on research and development.”
“If we want to produce the advanced weapons needed in modern combat operations and ensure that this high level is maintained in the long term, we must consider a modernisation of the defence industry as a whole. We can rely on our strong foundation and our personnel. The weapons produced in our country must be advanced and fully appropriate for our long-term objectives.”
“The industry must be upgraded to produce advanced equipment and weapons that meet the demands of the armed forces in terms of quality and, of course, the price. The Federal Targeted Programme for Russian Defence Industry Development to 2020 is a key instrument to achieve these objectives.”
“Are we going to join NATO or EU? No, we aren’t. We believe we are in a position to defend ourselves. As for the EU, we will continue to expand our relations with the European Union. <…> However, our primary goal is not to join alliances or achieve other political or administrative goals. Russia’s main goal is to improve its citizens’ standard of living. We will focus on achieving this goal.”
