Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had a meeting with Sergei Darkin, Governor of Primorye Territory
Putin: Mr Darkin, will you please report on your progress.
Darkin: Mr Putin, first allow me to thank you on behalf of all residents of the Maritime Territory for your visit and the work organised by the Government to prepare the APEC summit, for everything they have done for Vladivostok.
You and I yesterday discussed the construction of the pipeline in the Maritime Territory and heard reports on the construction of an oil refinery.
Putin: I say it again, these efforts concern the transport infrastructure, airport, roads, power generation, additional power plants, the gas pipeline from Sakhalin, development of the Russky Island, and construction of a new federal university. I strongly expect that this programme will be a major boost for the development of the region as a whole.
Darkin: For our part, we will do everything necessary to attain these goals. People in the Maritime Territory are heartily satisfied.
Putin: Can you describe the current situation? Economic development and work on social projects?
Darkin: Mr Putin, as for the economy, we see a rapid growth of the gross regional product. We plan to increase it tenfold by 2015. The new enterprises established in the Maritime Territory allow us to do this.
By the end of the year, the average salary in the Maritime Territory will reach 20,000 roubles. All social projects are being implemented. We receive sufficient funds from the federal budget, and the territorial budget is big enough.
Students again raised one of our problems today, regarding subsidies for Far Eastern passenger transportation.
I know that the Government has allocated the first part of requisite funds. We pin our hopes on them, because unfortunately tariffs are so far very high.
Putin: As I have said before, a decision has been made to subsidise passenger transportation by air. As for privileged rates for students, we will also keep them, and not only for the Far East but also for students all over the country.
Darkin: Mr Putin, I know that the task you have set to the Pension Fund, meaning that pensions in the Far East are lower than the subsistence wage, is being tackled. Pensions are being rapidly raised to the subsistence level, but we have so far not reached this level. We are working on this problem, which is quite serious for us.
The Maritime Territory has become a donor region. It is transferring more to the Pension Fund than is spent on pensions. This imbalance has not been remedied. This is a second painful problem on which we are working. We are monitoring it.
Thanks to the projects launched in the Maritime Territory, the unemployment rate is only 3 percent now. We are short of workforce. We are going to create a fundamentally new economy within five years.
Putin: This is a demographic problem, and it will become even more acute for the whole of the country in the next few years. Therefore, we should start considering ways to solve it. We must create requisite conditions for solving it.
