Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with the Governor of the Orenburg Region, Alexei Chernyshov
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: We'll talk about the homeless fire victims later. How are things in general?
Alexei Chernyshov: I'd like to start with agriculture. Our gross product has grown in the first half of the year. On the whole, livestock production is also on the rise.
As for the second half of the year, it is clear that the results will be a bit worse because we'll take in one million tonnes less than last year.
As regards the social situation in general, on August 1 industrial production posted a 12% drop compared with last year. Hence, budget revenues dropped by 17% on last year. With account taken of federal budget contributions, the reduction amounts to 9%.
Vladimir Putin: How much have you received from the federal budget?
Alexei Chernyshov: We have received 5.5 billion roubles this year.
Vladimir Putin: More than last year.
Alexei Chernyshov: More than last year, but I would like to note that we are committed to spending 6% more this year than we did last year because we have increased the budget fund for wages and salaries by 15%. For instance, we raised teacher's salaries by 25% on July 1. Medical workers are getting 17% more than before.
We are fulfilling all of our commitments on social payments, including those to veterans and students. We are also doing very well in providing young families with housing. This year, almost 900 families will receive housing with the help of the regional budget. The Country Housing Programme is also working quite successfully. Every year we build 1,500 houses in rural areas, and assist buyers with commodity loans. When investors build apartment blocs in cities, they fail to sell all of the apartments, whereas in rural areas all the houses are occupied. In other words, people prefer to stay...
Vladimir Putin: What is the term of a commodity loan?
Аlexei Chernyshov: We offer it for 17 years at 2.6% interest, In fact, we are using budget funds to help people acquire houses and work in the country. In our region, 42% of all people live in the country, and it is simply our duty to help them.
As for the labour market statistics, we have 17,000 unemployed, or 1.6% of the able bodied population.
Vladimir Putin: This number is practically not growing, is it?
Аlexei Chernyshov: This number has stabilized compared to the past year. We had 0.8%, and now it is 1.6%.
Vladimir Putin: But it hasn't increased recently, has it?
Aledxei Chernyshov: No, it is not growing now. It even dropped a bit but now it has stabilized. We are doing very well with public works. Public works are not all about street sweeping. This year, we received 428 million roubles for these purposes, for the entire employment programme. We have spent half of this sum in half a year. In other words, Mr Putin, this programme is very effective. It helps people make money when their companies encounter problems.
Vladimir Putin: We will continue this work.
