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.”
“Information technologies have long ceased to be something abstract and mysterious. People prefer using electronic services because it spares them a great ordeal. Information technologies have long ceased to be something that people do not understand and become a real factor that contributes to our nation's competitiveness.”
“In the near future the government plans to introduce a package of alterations to the Tax Code and the law on education, which are intended to create additional incentives for small, innovative businesses, which we decided to set up at universities. These companies will be granted a five-year exemption to ensure a smooth transition to the insurance premium system. In addition, we are drafting amendments to introduce unified regulations for licensing start-ups.”
“We must accelerate the adoption of the federal law on the general principles for providing federal government and municipal services. I ask that you consider the government draft law on the legal status of federal government and municipal establishments within February. Alterations must make public spending more effective, improving the quality of the services provided to people.”
“United Russia has always prioritised working directly with people. These efforts must be increased. We must develop and take advantage of the opportunities offered by public reception offices and the application procedures used by the party.”
“A few words about our short-term legislative objectives. I would like to specifically mention the law on pharmaceuticals circulation, which sets new requirements for the safety and quality of pharmaceuticals and, most importantly, introduces a mechanism for government control of pharmaceutical prices, which will allow us to curb abuses and defend people's rights and interests. The draft law was passed after its first reading on January 29, 2010. I ask you not to slow down the work on this draft law.”
“I would like to thank United Russia MPs for their proactive work last year. A total of 394 laws were passed and put into effect. This required significant work on the part of experts and politicians, both in the regions and in parliament. Of the 394 laws, State Duma MPs and the government introduced 135 and 138, respectively. <…>I would like to give just a few examples to show the effects of our recent efforts. The amendments to the law on veterans provided all needy veterans with the right to housing. <…> The alterations to the Tax Code expanded the scope of the so-called simplified taxation regulations for helping small and medium-sized businesses. And the law on energy conservation will become a powerful tool for increasing economic efficiency and the efficiency of the budget.”
“We will also allocate an additional 250 billion roubles to encourage mortgage lending and stimulate demand in the housing market. We discussed this issue at the United Russia congress, and we have committed ourselves to it.”
“The federal government alone will allocate 30 billion roubles from its budget for purchasing vehicles. Last year we allocated 35 billion roubles, and this year 30 billion roubles. If necessary we will increase funding, depending on the situation. Another 11 billion roubles have been budgeted for buying up old cars for a recycling programme. This is a new programme, and as you are aware, entails certain challenges. Unlike other countries, Russia has never done anything like this before, and consequently the necessary infrastructure is lacking. There are not enough scrap companies in the regions, and unfortunately so far no logistics system has been developed for transporting these vehicles to the disposal sites. But work is under way. I hope that we'll be able to begin this programme in March as planned.”
“The economy showed clear signs of improvement during the second half of last year. GDP and industrial production began growing again, and there have been some signs of recovery in investment.”
"The government should encourage all useful and socially responsible activities, including through tax breaks. I would like to recall in relation to this, that a number of draft laws on additional charity incentives have already been submitted to the State Duma. We hope that the Duma deputies will review them promptly, and lend them their support."
"I hope that the new programme for drafting technical regulations prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade will contain an exhaustive list of the documents, which we must adopt in 2010 and 2011 if we are to, finally, draw a line under this. The real economy should be given an opportunity to produce goods under modern standards and rules, which should encourage its development, not be a burden to it."
"We had complicated and lengthy but constructive talks with our Belarusian partners about crude oil supplies to the republic. We have reached a mutually acceptable decision. Russian oil will be supplied to Belarus duty-free to fully meet its domestic demand. However, duties will be levied for all additional supplies, processed and exported to third countries."
"We therefore need to take additional steps to create an investment-friendly environment. It implies fine-tuning the taxation system to ensure that it encourages innovations by lifting administrative barriers, optimising the state monitoring procedures and developing up-to-date technical regulations."
"Our primary goal is to diversify our economy, and to break from mono-economy. In the first place, we will encourage companies, both Russian and foreign, dealing in our priority sectors."
"Last year was difficult for both Russia and our foreign partners. We all faced serious problems. This situation, however, didn't stop the inflow of direct foreign investments to Russia, which, as a preliminary evaluation shows, exceeded $40 billion in 2009."
"We will make with priority given to support for young musicians. Over half of the four billion roubles appropriated for grants will be allotted for young musicians, choreographic and music schools, conservatories and so on. We are certainly going to support touring musicians. People living in remote Russian regions must not feel alienated from the country's cultural life."
"I would like to note that support for music will always be one of the government's top priorities in culture. A total of 6.4 billion roubles will be allocated from the federal budget for musicians and choreographers in 2010."
"We must seek due order on the external borders of the Customs Union. We will not allow any kind of gray zones for unscrupulous moneymakers to take advantage of. At the same time, honest businessmen must see all the advantages of integration and the Customs Union. This is even more critical given that we set ourselves a very important goal -establishing a common economic space, which we plan to go into effect on January 1, 2012. This suggests an even closer integration. I think comment is needless. A territory with a population of 170 million people could easily become an attraction for capital and high technology, which we have discussed so much recently."
"To resolve the problem as it stands now, after deciding that these vessels can fish in our economic zone if they are registered in accordance with Russian legislation, and to pursue any other related problems, we should do the following: The owners of these vessels built with the above-mentioned loan should register them as the property of the Russian Federation. After that, these vessels will be reregistered in accordance with Russian legislation, including registration with the Federal Agency for Fishery, so that the crews will be able to start using these vessels immediately. The Federal Agency for Fishery will either lease these vessels back to the companies, or sell the vessels back to them but only on condition that they resolve their debt completely, some owners of which have repaid 85%-90% of the loan."
"The system of education institution accreditation, which is given the right to issue state certificates and diplomas, poses certain questions as well. The system is too cumbersome, with accreditation services being rather costly. Educational institutions spent some 1.9 billion roubles on these services in 2009 alone. The costs for university accreditation reach 1.5 billion roubles, and we all understand that these costs are passed on to the students in the end. I believe that educational institutions must be relieved from licensing and accreditation fees, replaced by a fixed and transparent state duty so that it will be clear to everyone how much to pay."
"The accreditation system [educational institutions] must be efficient and transparent. We need to take advantage of international best practices. Public organisations, professional associations and those who will end up employing university and vocational school graduates must be involved in redefining the accreditation process. We need to use digital technology and the opportunities the Internet offers."
"Universities alone must submit quite a weighty folder, about 250 documents, 3,000 pages [to obtain the licence] in total. We cannot ensure a proper quality of education simply by making organisations collect reams of paperwork. The existing procedure needs overhauling and streamlining. In my view, licenses should not be limited in term. At the same time, the penalties for license and regulation violation must be toughened. Fire safety inspections and inspections of education conditions and general quality must be regular, rigorous and unbiased."
"From my viewpoint, it is necessary to manage licensing and state accreditation policies making them effective processes for education development. We must encourage a healthy competition in the education market, screening out establishments that do not comply with contemporary standards. Some 140,000 educational institutions in Russia need licenses."
"In the past four years a total of 1,250 billion roubles have been allocated to education from federal sources alone. It is quite a big sum, given our expenditures in general. It is a huge sum! We launched a general modernization effort within the framework of the Education national project. We will continue to regard this work as an absolute priority."
"As for energy, we know that there are problems with hydroelectric power in Venezuela due to a drought. We are willing to help by supplying equipment to offset shrinking energy generation-in particular, mobile gas turbine power stations. We can do this very quickly if necessary."
"This meeting concludes efforts started a year ago to set up the necessary conditions for the development of Junin 6, one of the world's largest oilfields. A consortium of Russian oil companies is ready to transfer a $600 million bonus, as was previously agreed upon, as soon as the Venezuelan parliament ratifies today's agreement. This is the beginning of a huge cooperative effort. I am confident that it will proceed according to plan and pay the corresponding dividends for Venezuela and Russia."
In 2004 and 2005 we began discussing the issue of writing off a large portion of the Iraqi national debt to the Russian Federation. We eventually came to an agreement with the Iraqi government and wrote off an unprecedented 90%, which is also a large amount in absolute terms, over $10 billion. Iraq is still in a predicament, but the situation was even worse at that time. Our efforts were meant as support and assistance for the new Iraqi leadership in their aspirations to restore the country's economy. From the very beginning we anticipated that the Iraqi government would welcome our oil and gas companies' entrance into the Iraqi oil market. What has happened is a positive result of this, a welcome event.
"As you know, amendments to the law on technical regulation have recently been passed to speed up and simplify the decision-making process. In particular, the amended law allows some appropriate decision to be made at the ministerial level. We propose transferring relevant powers to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. I expect this arrangement to speed up the process of updating the regulatory framework for our industry. The new rules will free manufacturers from unnecessary barriers, improve production and facilitate Russia's emergence in world markets. To be sure, the basic purpose of the new regulations is to promote the modernisation of the entire national economy".
"It would be better if we could teach Russian to people who want to study here in advance. Also, more people would like to study here in that case. We are aware of this fact, and we are trying to act on this issue, first of all in other CIS countries. We are sending textbooks there, training Russian-language teachers and starting courses. We would like to do this in more countries. Education over the internet and using modern technology play a big role in this respect".
"Recognition of diplomas does not often depend on the level of education of a young professional, but is instead connected with agreements between governments. As a rule, recognition is reciprocal. Today we have relevant agreements with 100 countries and we will try to increase this number."
"We are creating a single information network that is going to contain all the data from job centres and various recruitment agencies. It will also have information about the situation in the economy and about the skills and professions that are currently in demand in the job market across the country. The network is being created at the moment. I think it's going to become available in June."
"I have just spoken with the President of the Republic of Chuvashia (Nikolai Fyodorov). This is what we have fully agreed on: crime has fallen significantly in Russia, and so have alcoholism and smoking among young people. This improvement is largely due to widespread sports and fitness programmes, so their effect is here for all to see. We have set this target, and we are achieving it. So our efforts must go on."
"We need to seriously improve people's quality of life. And therefore, we need to develop and implement plans for the prosperity of cities and other communities in the North Caucasus. To begin with, we need to require the renovation of municipal housing, repairs, road building and transport improvement".
"We need special solutions for improving the investment climate. We only recently talked about this for the entire country and it is no less important for the North Caucasus. We need to work through the issue of establishing special economic zones in the federal district with regional industrial parks in every one of the constituent entities of the North Caucasus. And at that, I emphasise that the industrial parks, special zones and other instruments must be built on the basis of understandable and transparent procedures to eliminate the possibility of abuse and the repetition of past mistakes".
"Create a systematic strategy for the development of the federal district as a whole. Based on this strategy, prepare specific action plans for each constituent entity in the newly-formed federal district. How, what, in what timeframe and what resources will help solve what problems".
"Therefore at present, as never before, it is important to launch job-creation mechanisms and create conditions for launching new projects, stimulating small and mid-sized businesses, local industry, agriculture, construction and infrastructure in the broadest sense of the term. It is essential, finally, to learn to fully use the competitive advantages of the North Caucasus and its one-of-a-kind environmental assets. To do this, we have to improve the investment climate in the region by putting in order the regulatory agencies, the power structure in general and the social and budgetary authorities".
"The Gazprom programme has also made considerable progress. The level of gasification in Chechnya, North Ossetia-Alania and Ingushetia is at more than 90%, which is to say that a normal infrastructure system will gradually facilitate the regions' potential to make steady economic progress which in turn will enable the entire area to develop more consistently".
"Our goal is to strengthen those positive processes that, regardless of all of the problems, nevertheless have their place and have been in progress for more than a year in the North Caucasus thanks primarily to our efforts. Three federal programmes are currently being implemented - these are the South of Russia, Development of the Chechen Republic and Development of Ingushetia. Scores of public facilities have been built and renovated within the context of these programmes - schools, hospitals, athletic facilities and kindergartens. Water supplies have been improved for many communities".
"It is obvious that we need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government policy in the region by a considerable amount. This is the rationale behind the decision to create the new North Caucasus Federal District, and the appointment of a new leader, Alexander Khloponin, who will perform the duties of both the presidential envoy and deputy prime minister".
"The government must prove that it is capable of guaranteeing security, justice and the rule of law. It must provide stability, strengthen interregional accord and interfaith relations. We need to achieve a decisive watershed in the economic and social development of the North Caucasus".
"Now I would like to say a few words about the responsibilities of officials and representatives in any organisation that have violated the law. Please note that so-called representatives of authority are not immune to the law. We have examples of criminal persecution, whereby some high-ranking officials were convicted by a court of law and had to serve a term in prison. These include the heads of some regions representing the ruling party. There should be no exceptions in this respect. We will allow no exceptions at all".
Today we will also discuss the draft of the federal targeted programme on nuclear energy technology. Our primary objective is to use our competitive advantages in this high tech economic sector and to consolidate Russia's position on the international market. We have done much in the past, but now we must exploit our experience.
"Under this programme [federal targeted programme on nuclear energy technology] we must create a new generation of technology to build more efficient and eco-friendly nuclear power plants. I am referring to closed-cycle technology. This provides for the rational use of natural uranium and reduces nuclear waste, which means there is less to process and dispose of".
"In addition to public companies and large corporations with government participation, small and medium-sized companies should pursue geological prospecting for mineral resources and extraction. These companies can play a major role in this work. However, to make this work economically effective, it is necessary to lower the expenses for these companies in these activities. We have noted more than once that these expenses are primarily related to excessive administrative barriers. The efforts to reduce these costs could be very effective in terms of small companies that process gravel, clay and sand used locally, in construction. <…> One of the first proposals in this context is to cancel the fees for receiving information from the State Fund of Mineral Resources. This would make the information more accessible to business and would reduce the expenses of those companies, which are currently exploring them or are planning to do so".
"We are also going to discuss amendments to the law On Natural Resources. In the last few years we have overcome the negative trend of reduced geological prospecting and now we are increasing the number of known reserves in all basic minerals. In the mid-1990s we used to say with good reason that we are using what we had prospected before. We now have a completely different approach. According to the latest reports, positive results were obtained last year. We produced 582 billion cubic meters of gas and found 650 billion. The same applies to uranium and iron ore and other metals".
"I support the ministry's view that it should not try to keep its excessive regulating and control functions. I hope that the ministry will take a most active part in elaborating and introducing modern economic methods of ensuring safety. I am referring to mandatory liability insurance, safety audit and better system of technical regulation. Eventually we must effectively encourage businesspeople to invest in safety. I am talking not only about companies providing services but also about all branches of industry and infrastructure".
"The investigation showed that if the fire inspection had been effective this tragedy would not have happened. This is why our common goal for this year is to seriously revise the principles of fire inspection procedures".
"I would like to note that in the last few years Russian rescue services have considerably enhanced their technical equipment, the personnel potential and mobility. However we must admit that there are still many problems. The system of warning about emergencies remains ineffective. The fire inspection makes this particularly obvious".
"I don't have to repeat that everything pertaining to people's safety has always been and will remain one of the government's main priorities. The government will continue to pay most careful attention to that. In effect, our goal should be to protect Russian citizens against any threats, be it from criminals, road traffic, fire, man-made disasters and natural catastrophes wherever possible".
