At the first Cabinet meeting this year, Vladimir Putin outlined five key tasks the government should solve in the next 12 months.
For starters, "the pensions should be raised effectively and without slip-ups," in Mr. Putin's opinion.
"Regional markups should be established for all the elderly people whose incomes fall short of the subsistence minimum," the Prime Minister elaborated. We have agreed that we will provide additional payments, so the programme must be implemented on time."
Secondly, beginning from January 1, citizens will have access to "mother's capital" in order to improve their housing conditions, pay mortgage loans, cover the cost of education for their children, and form the accumulated part of their pensions.
"Mother's capital in 2010 amounts to 343,000 roubles," the Prime Minister reminded the Cabinet. "The budget has earmarked 102 billion roubles to support these commitments."
The third priority will be moving forward the housing projects that have already been started. They are intended to provide flats for war veterans and army servicemen and to broaden the scale of the construction of affordable housing on land that is federally owned.
In 2010, enterprises whose profits do not exceed 60 million roubles a year will be allowed to adopt a simplified taxation system. That will give a boost to small businesses, but the government will simultaneously have to take other steps to stimulate entrepreneurship and create new jobs.
Finally, providing electronic services to the population remains a challenge. In 2010, people will be able to file applications for several dozen types of government services via the Internet. That will save citizens the trouble of visiting government agencies.
"In this connection, I would like to say that no matter how complicated and daunting the tasks may look at first glance, especially in the social sphere, in healthcare, and in housing, if we focus on these tasks, allocate the necessary resources, and act in concert, especially with the Russian regions, we usually achieve success," Mr. Putin summed up.
He cited some concrete examples. "For example, the demographic problem seemed to be absolutely impossible to solve, and yet the process is moving in the positive direction. It seemed impossible to reverse the hazardousness of our roads. And yet we have done it. In 2010, we should single out the most critical things and promptly react to these problems, propose effective solutions, and finance them properly," the Prime Minister said.
Anastasia Savinykh