Gazeta: "We’ll do it, Prime Minister"
Maxim Tovkailo
On Sunday, Deputy Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers responsible for the economy and finance met in Dubna to discuss rehabilitation plans for the industry. President Dmitry Medvedev chaired the meeting.
On Tuesday, January 13, the Government Commission on Sustained Economic Development headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will meet at the Government House in Moscow to discuss targeted assistance to the so-called strategically important companies on the government list.
"WELL-BALANCED, BUT NOT IDEAL"
The government list was published in late 2008 and included 295 companies that make up the bulk of Russia's GDP, and whose problems are fraught with serious social and economic shocks, primarily an upsurge in unemployment.
To avoid mass layoffs, the Government is going to lend its shoulder to the companies on the list. It can help them in several ways, such as subsidise their loan interest, provide state guarantees to secure their new loans, help them restructure their tax debt, award them state contracts or buy into their share capital.
President Medvedev on Sunday criticised the Government's sluggishness in implementing its anti-crisis programme, saying the work should progress at a more dynamic pace in the current circumstances.
The Government has fulfilled the plans by 30%. Providing financial stability to major companies, for the purpose of which a list of top 295 companies was drawn up, is a short-term priority task for the Government, he said.
On the whole, he said, at the last Government meeting in 2008, which took place on December 29, the anti-crisis plans were "well-balanced but not ideal". The President added that there was no such thing as an ideal programme.
The President also said yesterday that red tape was hindering the programme's implementation, and that loans were too expensive. While the Government plans to subsidise large-companies' borrowings, smaller companies won't benefit from this policy. "A lot of companies find financing unaffordable because of the high interest charged by the banks," he said.
He didn't rule out a change in the Central Bank's refinance rate and said he would return to this issue at an economic meeting scheduled in a few days.
THE COST OF EMPLOYMENT
The federal Government will not only support large companies; it will also provide assistance to regions.
Russia's regions are to draw up, by January 15, programmes to boost employment, jointly with the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development. The Government has allocated 43.7 billion roubles for these programmes, 530 million for each region. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a relevant executive order on December 31.
Several regions have already submitted their programmes, including the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Lipetsk and Yaroslavl regions, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at a meeting with the Prime Minister on January 9 that the programmes would first be approved by a working group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, which meets on Mondays. After that, they will be considered by Mr Shuvalov's commission, which will finally approve the allocations.
"We'll need about two weeks to transfer the money to the regions of the federation," Mr Shuvalov told the Prime Minister.
"You have two more weeks, or three at best, for the first money to reach the regions," Mr Putin said.
"We'll do it," Mr Shuvalov vowed.
Rosstat, the Federal State Statistics Service, reports that unemployment in Russia has been on the rise since May 2008, when only 4.1 million people were looking for jobs. The unemployment rate grew to 4.22 million in June, 4.34 million in August, 4.55 million in September, and then surged between October and November, from 4.6 million to 5 million.
The Economics Ministry's basic forecast envisions further growth despite the anti-crisis package adopted by the Government. A total of 5.6 million people may lose their jobs by the end of the year.
However, independent analysts consider this forecast quite optimistic. Their estimates are 20 to 30% higher.
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MOSCOW OFFICIALS TO LOSE BONUSES
Moscow authorities expect official unemployment to stay below 1% in 2009 and have worked this figure into another three-party agreement approved last month.
However, the number of people registered with employment offices has been rising steadily, from 18,600 in September to 19,800 in November and to 20,100 in early December.
At the same time, salaries have been slowly going down: The average monthly pay in Moscow fell from 32,080 roubles in June to 29,100 roubles in November.
The City Hall plans to put up a fight against unemployment using administrative measures. First, the Moscow Government elevated the status of the city's employment authority, reorganising it into a government agency, the Employment and Labour Department.
The new department will be headed by Oleg Neterebsky, former Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and member of the Public Chamber. Officials at the new department were not ready to give details on the agency's functions on Sunday, but said that its former powers would be vastly expanded.
The City Hall will authorise the department with a comprehensive regulation of the Moscow labour market by a resolution, including monitoring the market, developing employment exchanges, regulating labour migration and safety.
The city also plans to allocate 34 million roubles for training and retraining programmes.
The city officials also decided to cut their own costs. In late December, the City Hall introduced a moratorium on officials' bonuses and wage rises until special notice, and cut expenses on their business trips and office supplies.
The restrictions on bonuses and salaries will only apply to high-level officials, while other limitations will concern all Moscow civil servants.
Incidentally, certain Moscow residents might even benefit from the crisis, as the City Hall suspended its plans to eliminate kiosks, booths and stalls for a year, in a bid to save jobs. The plan was to continue removing trade outlets other than official stores and shops, cutting them by 20% in 2009.
