Implementing the Federal Address

A few days ago, President Putin Addressed the Federal Assembly with the proposed plans for the next several years, three in most cases, but beyond that for a few. Here’s how the Kremlin described it:

Vladimir Putin held a meeting with members of the Government via video link. Main The topic of discussion is the implementation of the Address of the President to the Federal Assembly.

Altogether, 23 Ministers took part. This is the start of turning all those words and ideas into actions and eventually finished projects that further uplift Russia. The meeting is just over an hour, or I should say the video is that long and its transcript is of similar length. I’m sure additional discussion took place; we’re just not privy to it. But what we get to read will further our knowledge of how Russia works:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues, good afternoon!

I suggest that we talk about our plans today in connection with the Address to the Federal Assembly, which, as you know, formulated the national development program. In fact, this is a set of actions to be implemented in the coming years and in the medium term.

Specific goals are set in the areas of demography, healthcare, education, upbringing of children and youth, and personnel training. Specific tasks are outlined to strengthen the country's technological sovereignty and create new digital platforms, improve cities and rural settlements, and develop transport and other infrastructure.

New national projects should be launched in these and other key areas starting next year.

In this regard, I would like to add that we have a fairly stable and reliable base for this, and the trends that we are currently observing in the economy give reason to believe that all this is really feasible and that the plans we have discussed are being implemented.

You know that in February, our price growth is decreasing, inflation is stabilizing – in February it was 0.7 percent, and in the first couple of weeks of this month, inflation went to zero. It is clear that in weekly terms, this is all very approximate, everything is volatile, but nevertheless it is as it is. The economy grew by 4.6 percent in January. GDP growth last year was 3.6 [percent], which is generally very satisfactory, a good indicator, while in January it was 4.6 [percent]. It is also clear that this is only the beginning of the year. If I am wrong about something, my colleagues will correct me, but the trends that we are currently observing give reason to believe that the plans proposed in the framework of the Message to the Federal Assembly are quite feasible. And this work should be started immediately.

However, it is important to ensure that all elements of each national project are planned in detail. Such planning should combine in one logic the actions of all levels of government from municipal to federal; all work-from making strategic decisions to their practical implementation in a particular locality.

Taking into account, of course, the experience already available to the Government, it is necessary to build a complete system for managing national projects, use digital tools to monitor their implementation and the results of their implementation, rely on the opinion of citizens, as we constantly say, on feedback from society. All national projects should be aimed at achieving national development goals, and any narrow-minded approach is absolutely unacceptable.

And I repeat once again, the Government's task is to ensure well – coordinated interaction and close coordination of government bodies, economic and social sectors, representatives of business, science, education, business associations, and other civil society institutions. And of course, the regions of the Russian Federation should play a significant and largely key role in the preparation and implementation of national projects.

In this regard, I propose to hold a joint meeting of the State Council and the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects in May of this year with the participation of the heads of regions, where, I think, it will be appropriate to discuss how to solve the tasks set, as they say, on the ground, in relation to specific regions of the Federation. What additional tools are needed to achieve the practical, tangible results that Russian citizens expect?

I ask the Government to decide on the main approaches and principles for implementing new national projects by the end of April. We will also discuss this issue separately at the next meetings.

I know that our colleagues in the Government have already started this work. The Prime Minister and I met yesterday and discussed this issue. I think we need to move on to practical work in each area.

Please, let's start our discussion today.

I give the floor to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov. You are welcome.

A. : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear Mikhail Vladimirovich,

Dear colleagues!

The Message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly sets out the key goal to be achieved in the economic sphere – by 2030, our country should enter the top four largest economies in the world.

Today, as you know, the Russian economy ranks fifth in terms of gross domestic product at purchasing power parity. Calculations show that Russia can become the fourth economy in the world, ahead of Japan, provided that growth remains stable at least 2 percent per year, with a gradual acceleration to 3 percent by the end of the period. In total, for the period up to 2030, the country's GDP should be increased by about 20 percent.

I would like to briefly highlight the five main mechanisms that will allow us to do this.

The first is to increase labor productivity, something that was discussed a lot in the Message. In conditions of a shortage of personnel, this is critically important. In addition, it is only through a high level of labor productivity that it is possible to ensure a steady increase in real wages in the economy, and hence in consumer demand for Russian goods and services.

To do this, it is planned, firstly, to conduct a large-scale reengineering of business processes at enterprises of basic non-resource sectors of the economy and social sphere based on modern principles of lean production. The work will be carried out by the already established Federal Competence Center and 60 regional centers.

By 2030, the project will cover at least 12 thousand enterprises, twice as many as at the moment, and all 288 thousand social institutions. The outstripping increase in labor productivity at enterprises covered by this program should grow by 5 percent compared to the industry average.

Second, expand the use of the benefits of digital solutions. The key role here is played by the platform of best practices of domestic digital solutions "Efficiency.Russian Federation". In fact, this is remote consulting for organizing the digital transformation processes of companies.

By 2030, the platform will feature about 600 services and standard solutions. We expect that this will increase by 2.5 times the number of digital solutions that will be used at enterprises participating in the national labor productivity project.

The second mechanism is to ensure investment growth. Today, investment activity is at a high level, reflecting the scale of the structural adjustment of the economy that has begun. Based on the data for the past year, investment in fixed assets increased by 9.8 percent, almost three times faster than GDP growth. The goal is to maintain outstripping investment growth throughout the entire period of 2025-2030.

What do you plan to focus on? First, it focuses on ensuring predictable conditions for investors. To this end, agreements on the protection and promotion of capital investments have been launched, which stabilize the project implementation conditions and allow investment in infrastructure at the expense of future taxes. Investment commitments worth about RUB 4 trillion have been recorded in 67 currently operating SPCs. By 2030, it is planned to double the number of concluded agreements to 150 SZPC with a total investment of about 7 trillion rubles.

Secondly, it is planned to continue work on the implementation of the regional investment standard. The tool creates clear rules and infrastructure to support investors in the region. The successful result of its implementation is confirmed by the results of the national rating of the state of the investment climate, developed annually by leading business associations and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. Today, the regional investment standard has been implemented in 85 regions and confirmed by businesses.

In 2023, four new regions joined this work: the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics, the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, which will implement this tool by June 2024.

Third – encourage investment through the provision of an investment tax deduction. This is one of the mechanisms for encouraging investment activity in the regions. Entrepreneurs will be able to reduce the amount of income tax to the regional budget by up to 90 percent of the investment volume, and the regions will be compensated for up to two-thirds of the lost income. This was agreed with Anton Siluanov.

When providing an investment tax deduction, it is planned to switch to a project-based approach. Relevant changes have been made to the Tax Code. Starting from January 1 of this year, regions have the right to adopt laws on the possibility of applying the investment tax deduction on a new basis.

Fourth, ensuring the stability of the financial market, which will transform savings into investments in the Russian economy. The capitalization of the Russian stock market in 2023 was about 34 percent of GDP. By 2030, it should reach 66 percent.

Since January 1 of this year, the Program for creating long-term savings of citizens has been launched, a new type of individual investment accounts has been launched, and access to the Russian financial market for foreign financial organizations from friendly countries has been simplified. These and a number of other measures are reflected in the Strategy for the Development of the Financial Market of the Russian Federation until 2030, updated by the Government in December 2023.

The third mechanism is to support and increase non-primary non-energy exports in the markets of friendly countries. In accordance with the Address, the volume of non – primary non-energy exports should increase by at least two-thirds, and the export of agricultural products-by one and a half times. This is a very high and ambitious goal.

Support for exporting companies will be provided at all stages of the export project life cycle. Promotion of Russian products in foreign markets will be ensured by providing preferential investment, pre-export and trade financing.

Special attention will be paid to the promotion of Russian products and brands under the auspices of the "Made in Russia" program. At the beginning of this year, the first Made in Russia festival and fair was held in China, which was a significant success.

Russian manufacturers will be helped to adapt their products to the requirements of new markets as part of certification and homologation measures.

The most important task is to create the necessary infrastructure not only within the country, but also on the territory of friendly countries. It is planned to provide assistance to private businesses in creating transport and logistics centers, industrial zones, necessary port, warehouse and demonstration facilities abroad. At the same time, Russian exporters will also be compensated for part of their transportation costs.

The fourth mechanism for accelerating growth is support for small and medium-sized businesses. By 2030, the goal is to increase the revenue of SMEs per employee by at least 23 percent compared to 2023. This is 1.2 times higher than the growth rate of gross domestic product.

First of all, the growth of the indicator will be ensured by expanding financial support measures, preferential leasing of industrial equipment, and stimulating purchases of the largest customers from SMEs. These support measures will cover more than 1.5 million entrepreneurs.

We will continue to develop high-quality infrastructure. Additionally, we will create at least 100 industrial technology parks (currently there are 45 of them). At the same time, we plan to integrate small businesses into the rapidly developing network of industrial parks.

We will provide a wider range of services to the My Business centers. Today, such centers are represented in 84 regions of the country.

We will create a single digital system of federal and regional support measures for small businesses, combining them on the basis of the digital platform "SME. rf". We plan to multiply the coverage rate from 700 thousand users to about 2 million by 2030.

We aim to encourage small businesses to enter global markets by expanding the support tools of the Russian Export Center Group and placing products of small and medium-sized enterprises on international marketplaces.

The task of simplifying the conditions for creating a new business remains highly relevant over the six-year horizon. Today, about one million new SMEs are created annually in Russia, which is just over 17 percent of the average annual number of all SMEs.

We plan to raise this figure to almost 20 percent by 2030. This task will be solved by adapting financial support measures for start-up entrepreneurs. Their access to the list of financial mechanisms, such as microloans, grants, and umbrella guarantees, will be significantly expanded. We will continue to work on optimizing our reporting.

Finally, the fifth mechanism is the implementation of import substitution projects. Of course, import substitution is not an end in itself, but within reasonable limits it solves two problems at once: economic sovereignty and stimulating growth.

The import substitution task will be performed using two main groups of measures.

The first is systematic import substitution measures for a wide range of products. Among them are concessional loans, including under the cluster investment platform and the Industrial Development Fund, as well as subsidies for R & D.

The second group of measures is the launch of projects of technological sovereignty, which were discussed in the Message. Each of them is aimed at producing specific lines of high-tech products based on its own development lines. These projects are characterized by ensuring guaranteed demand for the development of critical technologies, training of personnel, and provision of special support measures. There will be 12 such projects in advance. Among them: machine-tool construction and robotics, new materials and chemicals, food security, new medical technologies. They will be supervised by the relevant Deputy Prime Ministers.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, the implementation of these mechanisms will enable the Russian economy not only to meet current and future challenges, but also to achieve further sustainable growth and achieve the key goals outlined in the economic part of the President's Address to the Federal Assembly.

Thank you for your attention.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

How many new small businesses were created in our country last year? In my opinion, 1 million 200 thousand.

Alexander Belousov: About 1.5 million, somewhere in the region of this one.

Last year was unique in this respect. We plan to maintain this trend today. But it can only be supported by using the new tools that we are currently developing.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it was really unique, because it replaced what was previously produced by foreign participants in the economic activity market. Replaced, in my opinion, very worthy. In many areas, we have even improved both the quality and delivery time to the market. Well done.

Thanks

Naturally, the main tasks that we solve in the sphere of economic development, they should ultimately affect how people live, and this includes the entire social sphere, health care, education, assistance to families with children, and culture. We also have big plans here.

Tatiana Alekseevna, please.

T. : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear colleagues! Good afternoon!

Vladimir Vladimirovich, all instructions in the social sphere have been accepted for execution. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, we have started developing national projects.

Now the national project has a long and active life. Its key goal is to increase life expectancy to 78 years by 2030. Now this milestone has been reached by three regions of the country – the Republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia and the city of Moscow.

As part of the national project, we will continue the modernization of the primary care system. This is the most popular project among the population, as it concerns every resident of our country. Every year, we record more than 1 billion requests to primary care institutions.

To date, the most successful implementers of the program are the city of Moscow, the Republic of Tatarstan, Mordovia, Karelia, the Leningrad Region and a number of others.

We are planning, as you instructed, measures for the comprehensive development of emergency care, the fight against cardiovascular, oncological diseases, and diabetes mellitus. We will also provide for re-equipping perinatal centers and children's hospitals, modernizing women's clinics, and updating the material and technical base of federal institutions.

We assume that taking into account the additional budget allocations you have identified, more than 4 thousand healthcare facilities will be created by the end of 2030, including more than 100 reception offices in inter-district centers with a population of more than 300 thousand people, 450 modular women's clinics will be built, more than 10 thousand facilities will be renovated and equipped, including 1.5 thousand children's hospitals and perinatal centers.

Such high-quality infrastructure changes will allow timely detection and treatment of life-threatening diseases, thereby saving about 1 million lives. The contribution to the gross domestic product for saved lives may exceed 2 trillion rubles.

We also plan a large-scale renovation of the material and technical base of more than 2.5 thousand kindergarten buildings and 9.3 thousand school buildings. Thus, together with the regions, by the end of 2030, we will close the problem that has accumulated at the moment with the buildings of general education organizations that need major repairs and reconstruction. As part of this work, we will pay special attention to the repair and equipment of school medical offices.

I would like to mention the regions that have fulfilled their commitments to overhaul schools in 2023. These are the Republics of Bashkortostan, Sakha (Yakutia), North Ossetia-Alania, the Chechen Republic, and the Trans-Baikal Territory.

Starting from 2025, we will additionally carry out targeted construction of new schools and kindergartens in certain localities. This need is connected with the historical distribution imbalances and significant deterioration of individual objects, as well as with the decisions taken on the targeted development of a number of territories. Together with the regions, we plan to build about 150 schools and 110 kindergartens in six years.

In 12 regions of the country, there will be leadership-level schools, so-called flagship schools, which will become an advanced platform for developing talented students and teachers, creating and implementing the best educational practices in the country.

Today, construction of five such schools has begun in the Novgorod, Pskov, Ryazan, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions with a capacity of 800 places each with a campus for students to live in. We plan to open three of them in 2026.

Starting from September 1, 2023, a single career guidance model will be introduced in all schools. In the current academic year, it covers more than 8.4 million children starting from the 6th grade. Every week, students are taught about modern production facilities. More than 514 thousand children visited excursions at enterprises across the country.

In accordance with your instructions, it is necessary to train 1 million specialists and skilled workers by 2028 to ensure the country's security, sovereignty and competitiveness in the main sectors of technological sovereignty. To do this, we are expanding the Professionalitet project on your behalf.

During the two years of its implementation, 220 industrial educational clusters have already been created, which include 925 colleges in 68 regions of the country in 24 priority sectors of the economy, and attracted 1,000 enterprises. The leading regions today are the Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Tula, Murmansk Regions and Primorsky Krai. The first pilot, or, as we call it, experimental release under the project "Professionalitet" will take place in 2024. It will be just over 138 thousand young professionals who will come to mechanical engineering, information technology, agriculture and transport.

As part of the expansion of the Professionalitet project, we are now planning to increase the number of colleges and expand the areas of training in order to include training in such specialties as healthcare, services, and creative industries in the Professionalitet project.

For 2024, we have already selected 70 clusters in 79 regions of the country, and now an additional selection of twenty more is being carried out, which will be completed by mid-April.

Along with such branded projects as "Zemsky Doktor" and "Zemsky Uchitel", we will start implementing the "Zemsky Worker of Culture" program on your behalf in 2025.

A specialist who comes to work in a village or small town will receive a one-time payment, as you instructed, in the amount of 1 million rubles, and those who go to the Far East, Donbass or Novorossiya-twice as much, that is, 2 million rubles.

I want to say right away that following your decision, the initiative received a very positive response in the regions. We will actively cooperate with our colleagues and support this work methodically. According to preliminary estimates, by the end of 2030, we plan to attract about 9 thousand specialists to the industry, which will significantly reduce the existing personnel deficit.

In your Address, Mr President, you have voiced an important measure to support large families – doubling the standard deductions for personal income tax on children: for the second child – 2.8 thousand rubles, for the third and each subsequent child-up to 6 thousand rubles per month. The amount of the annual income before which such deductions are applied is increased from 350 to 450 thousand rubles.

This measure will start working in 2025. The Ministry of Finance and I have estimated that it will cover about 10 million parents and guardians a year, and, according to preliminary estimates, a total of more than 35 billion rubles a year will remain in families.

Now let's talk about your instructions regarding payments to certain categories of public sector employees. Since January 2023, on your instructions, special social payments have been introduced for certain categories of primary health care workers.

Depending on the category and specialty, the amount of payments ranged from 4.5 to 18.5 thousand rubles per month. Now, in accordance with the additional decisions that you made and announced at the plenary session of the II Forum of Future Technologies, from March 1, 2024, payments will be made to medical workers of medical organizations and their structural divisions in localities with a population of up to 50 thousand people: to doctors – up to 50 thousand rubles, to secondary medical personnel – up to 30 thousand rubles. in localities with a population of 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants, the amount of payments to doctors will be 29 thousand rubles, and to secondary medical workers – 13 thousand rubles.

These measures will affect more than 200 thousand medical workers. The corresponding funds are provided in the budget of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, and the resolution will be considered at a Government meeting tomorrow, and payments for March will be made in April.

Also, starting from March 1 this year, we will double the amount of remuneration for classroom guidance and supervision for teachers of schools and colleges in localities with a population of less than 100 thousand people from 5 to 10 thousand. This measure will affect over 565 thousand teachers. Teachers will also receive their first payments in April this year.

Starting from September of this year, we will introduce incentive remuneration in the amount of 5 thousand rubles for educational advisers, principals of schools and organizations of secondary vocational education. This measure will cover more than 32,000 recipients.

In conclusion, I would like to say that in accordance with your instructions, Mr Putin, the minimum wage is being indexed ahead of schedule. The minimum wage has been increased by 18.5 percent since January 1, 2024. It affected 4.8 million employees. We will continue this work.

By 2030, the minimum wage should double even more – to 35 thousand rubles, which will certainly have a positive impact on wages in the public sector, and in the economy as a whole, as well as on the increase in social benefits.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, the tasks are clear. All your tasks will be completed.

Thanks for attention.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Tatyana Alekseevna.

Tatyana Alekseyevna has just spoken about many areas of social policy, including education.

We recently discussed some of these issues with our colleagues from the Government and the regions.

Dmitry Nikolaevich, how do you see the prospect of building and developing a system of university campuses?

: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

In your Address to the Federal Assembly, you instructed us to expand the program of creating modern world-class university campuses to 40.

As we have already reported, campuses are being designed and built in 17 regions – from Kaliningrad to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. This is more than 2,300 thousand square meters of advanced infrastructure for studying, practicing science, technological entrepreneurship, creativity, sports and, of course, comfortable living for students, teachers, scientists.

We have developed a unified standard for the campus and its equipment. Each one is linked to specific industries and technologies that allow us to train personnel and conduct research in all priority areas, such as genetics, artificial intelligence, new materials, and others. All these areas are included in the approved Strategy of scientific and Technological development.

In February, at the exhibition "Russia", just as you mentioned, you opened the facilities of four campuses in Moscow, Kogalym, Almetyevsk and Ufa. By the end of the year, 21 more facilities will be put into operation in Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk and Moscow.

The pace is very good. We do everything we can to keep it going. I would like to note that the total cost of creating these 17 selected campuses exceeds half a trillion rubles, of which about 40 percent is federal funds, and a comparable amount is attracted by business and regions.

Thanks to your decision on additional financing of 400 billion rubles, it will allow increasing investments in the creation of campuses totaling about 1.5 trillion rubles, taking into account the costs of construction, equipment and maintenance of facilities. This is an unprecedented scale of construction and funding program in the field of higher education in the recent history of our country.

Thanks to your support, in August we will hold the third competition for the selection of projects for creating campuses, and we will select at least eight more projects.

I would like to note that the program is very popular among the regions. We expect even more applications. If in the first selection there were 27 applications, of which we selected nine, then in the second there were already about 39, in the third we expect more than 50 applications in advance, that is, the competition is very high.

It is very important that the program is closely linked to other projects that are being implemented on your behalf. 25 universities participating in the Priority 2030 program and 15 universities that received support for the creation of advanced engineering schools are involved in the creation of campuses.

Just on your initiative, as you mentioned, both of these programs will be expanded and extended, the number of advanced engineering schools will double – up to 100, and the implementation of the Priority 2030 program will continue. You have already given such instructions.

The synergy of these programs, together with your instructions to increase the level of remuneration for teachers of fundamental disciplines-mathematics, physics, chemistry-will provide a systematic basis for training engineering and scientific personnel to ensure technological sovereignty.

On behalf of Mikhail Mishustin, the Government has systematically organized monitoring of the program for creating campuses. We regularly hold staff meetings, and together with Marat Shakirzyanovich [Khusnullin], we report to the Chairman on the progress of their construction at weekly planning meetings.

Remember last year when we showed you a dashboard that included video cameras to track the progress of campus construction in real time? And we track many other parameters there.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, in your Address to the Federal Assembly, you also instructed to launch a large-scale program to overhaul 800 university dormitories. Thanks to your support, 124 billion rubles will be allocated for this purpose, or about 20 billion rubles annually, which will allow us to modernize the existing infrastructure, the residential infrastructure of universities, that is, to make comprehensive repairs and solve not just some point problems, but to update the entire infrastructure. We will be able to renovate at least 140 dormitories a year, which is about 49 thousand more comfortable places for students annually.

You constantly tell us about the need for feedback, so of course we will implement this program together with the All-Russian Popular Front. We have already reached such agreements.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, the sphere of science and higher education has been very enthusiastic about your decisions to develop the country's scientific and technological potential. Their implementation will ensure the achievement of technological sovereignty. Under the leadership of Mikhail Mishustin, the Government will carry out your assignments within the established time frame.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Dmitry Nikolaevich.

The main thing is that it should be provided with funding. As far as I understand, the sources are defined and there are no disagreements here. It is very good.

You know, I would like to take a break from the topics that you have just touched upon. I would like to thank you and all those involved in the preparation and holding of the Games of the Future for this event. I will not hide the fact that I felt so positive about it, of course, and I wanted both our young people and our guests to enjoy their communication. But I still treated it as a very light, modern entertainment program, and it turned out to be a very serious event.

But even the point is not that it turned out to be a serious event now, but the important thing is that, you were really right, this is a good start for the future. Indeed," Games of the Future " was watched by hundreds of millions of people. But it is important that we were the first to organize an event of this scale, and this, of course, is very cool, interesting and, in my opinion, promising.

So I would like to ask you, and Mikhail Vladimirovich has already said this: we should, of course, mention the people who organized this work.

Now, as for the basis on which we want to achieve the results that we are talking about today and will continue to talk about. Of course, we must do this, and we have come back to it many times, on the basis of our own technological achievements – achievements in the field of science and education, and on the basis of technological sovereignty, strengthening this technological sovereignty and its development.

There are specific tasks here. I would like to ask Denis Valentinovich Manturov to briefly discuss this issue. You are welcome.

Dmitry : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear colleagues!

The message to the Federal Assembly sets long-term guidelines for achieving the technological sovereignty of our country.

We will continue to work in key areas within the framework of existing state programs, as well as systematic measures of state support. We are translating the development of the most important sectors of the economy into national projects on your behalf.

This, first of all, concerns the formation of a full cycle of production of chemical products. For this purpose, about 150 new medium-and low-tonnage chemical enterprises will be created by 2030. Thus, we will provide thousands of manufacturers of medicines, cosmetics, perfumes, household and industrial chemicals, lacquers, paints, building materials and food products with Russian raw materials.

The second cross – cutting direction, which has now received a powerful impetus to its development, is the production of machine tools, equipment and industrial robots. In the next six years, we plan to modernize and create about 70 production facilities. Mastering new competencies will allow you to rhythmically update fixed assets and increase the degree of industrial automation. Along with the introduction of domestic software solutions, this will increase the level of digital maturity of enterprises to 85 percent.

In general, the development of telecommunications services is extremely important for digitalization of all stages of the life cycle of industrial products. They are now actively moving into space.

In order to strengthen our sovereignty in this area, a new national project is being formed on your instructions. Among its main areas, I would like to mention the development and production of advanced launch vehicles, including reusable ones, the creation of transport modules based on a nuclear power plant, and, of course, the construction of the Russian orbital station.

Another priority you have outlined in the next six years is to increase the economic connectivity of our country. This is what the tools of our two sectoral state programs are aimed at. We are talking about providing civil aviation with domestic aircraft and helicopters, as well as technological sovereignty in shipbuilding in order to continue large-scale renewal of the passenger, cargo and fishing fleets.

In addition, our shipbuilders will help solve the problems of increasing cargo flows through the Northern Sea Route, taking into account the increasing pace of construction of marine equipment, including tankers, container ships and icebreakers.

The same applies to the provision of land transport corridors by rail, such as the North – South, BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway, and the creation of passenger rolling stock for new high-speed highways.

Work in all the areas I have outlined will serve to achieve your macroeconomic goals, covering all major industries.

Taking into account your decisions, Mr President, we are developing the necessary financial resources to accelerate the development of our competencies, taking into account the recapitalization of the Industrial Development Fund, which will ensure the implementation of at least 500 additional new projects by 2030. Using the cluster investment platform mechanism, we will be able to attract about 2 trillion rubles more in private investments to the industry, and under industrial mortgages, we will be able to involve about 10 million square meters of production space in economic turnover. This also expands access for small and medium-sized businesses to the infrastructure of industrial parks.

You have already mentioned the results of last year in terms of attracting small and medium-sized businesses in industry. This will be another additional boost. So we will continue.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, on behalf of the entire industry, I would like to thank you for your unprecedented support and personal attention to the development of our industries. We will make every effort to cope with the tasks set.

The report is over.

Vladimir Putin: All right. Thanks

That's what I'd like to say. Everything is important, everything is important.

What would you like to draw your attention to? You have just mentioned some areas in which we have good competencies and, moreover, even have such groundwork that we can be proud of and look forward to in the future.

For example, the nuclear power plant you mentioned for working in space. You need to finance it on time. If we continue to treat you like this – this is not your personal concern, of course, it concerns you in general – but we need to set priorities.

I would like to appeal to both Andrey Ramovich [Belousov] and Mikhail Vladimirovich [Mishustin]. There are some issues that require additional attention. This topic is important. It seems that we are all used to the fact that we have such competencies that other countries do not have, but we need to pay special attention to it in order for it to develop and be used in the future to solve the problems that can and should be solved with the help of these technologies. This is the first one.

Second, as for the shipbuilding industry that you mentioned. Here's what we'll need to decide on. There is a need, apparently, to build additional shipyards. We need to decide on the place of their construction. Of course, if this is linked to the territorial development of the country, and not only that, but also to the convenience of manufacturing appropriate equipment, then, of course, it would be advisable to do this in the eastern regions of Russia, including in order to create conditions for the development of the Far East, to create new, well-paid jobs there, competencies and so on. But everything is more expensive there. And in order for these projects to be implemented, they will undoubtedly need to make a decision on the cost of their products.

It's cheaper in the European part, but more expensive there. This means that we are unlikely to have any other way than Government support for this production. It's easier to do it in the European part and cheaper. But given the need for the development of the Far East, it is more expedient for us, based on the long-term interests of the Russian state, to develop these competencies in the Far East.

I ask Andrey Ramovich and you, of course, Denis Valentinovich, the Prime Minister, to think about this. This is an important thing.

Then, in general, we need to once again return to the issues related to clearing the financial base of USC [United Shipbuilding Corp.], and not only at this point in time, but also to create long-term sources of financing for those programs that can be implemented there in terms of building a civilian fleet, and not only a specialized one, but in a broad sense a civilian fleet. We will have to come back to this in the very near future. Then I ask you to work on this topic and think about it.

Dmitry Manturov: We will definitely work on it.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Our builders achieved very good results last year, we have said this many times, and once again I want to thank everyone who works in this complex for the results. But there are many challenges - both in the housing and utilities sector and in the development of small and medium-sized cities. There are plans here, as I mentioned in my Message.

I would like to ask Marat Shakirzyanovich to return to these topics. Please, Marat Shakirzyanovich.

M. Khusnullin : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

In your Address to the Federal Assembly, special attention is paid to the issues of balanced development of regions, increasing their economic independence, as well as creating infrastructure for the life and activities of our citizens.

Therefore, our main strategic goal is to develop infrastructure in a broad sense. These are housing, social facilities, municipal, transport, industrial facilities and jobs for our residents, taking into account their opinion, as you emphasized in the Message.

You have instructed to develop a comprehensive development program for about 2,000 localities, including identifying at least 200 large and small cities, and developing a master plan for each of them. The main priority is to ensure balanced development of the regions and increase their economic independence.

To do this, it is necessary, together with the heads of regions, to identify growth points in each subject and direct joint efforts of all levels of government to their development. This will give an absolute boost to the development of all settlements in each region and in the whole region.

The approach to the development of localities should be comprehensive. It is necessary to link all plans for the creation and modernization of infrastructure. This includes housing construction, creating a comfortable urban environment, and transport connectivity, all of our three existing national projects.

Today we have reached record levels in housing construction. Housing commissioning in 2023 amounted to 110.4 million square meters, and in the first two months of this year, housing commissioning amounted to 20.6 million square meters. In other words, we continue to maintain our current pace. More importantly, housing conditions improved last year for 4.4 million families. This is also the best performance in history.

We are working to increase the urban development potential and meet the national goal of introducing at least 120 million square meters by 2030. Your decision to extend the family mortgage until 2030 and its special conditions for small towns will contribute to achieving the goals, and every fifth meter of housing built in our country will be new.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I would like to point out that the population invests 5-6 trillion rubles annually in housing construction. This is the biggest investor in our country, that is, the population believes. These are roads, networks, and social networks. Everything we do in a comprehensive way leads to the fact that the population is investing more and more money in the development of housing construction.

The decision to extend the "Comfortable Urban Environment" program and the competition in small towns, as well as the decision on a new program for resettling dilapidated housing, the extension of infrastructure and budget loans programs allows us to take a comprehensive approach to the development of settlements and reach the indicators of improving the urban environment by one and a half times by 2030.

We reported on approaches to integrated development of settlements, agglomerations and macro-regions using the example of the Kaliningrad Region, the St. Petersburg agglomeration and the Azov-Black Sea cluster. We will use the same principle to shape our work in the future.

Addressing the issues of regional economic independence will help reduce their debt burden. Previously, the Government, together with the Ministry of Finance, has already taken decisions on restructuring regional debt on budget loans.

Starting in 2021, some of these funds will be allocated by the regions to create infrastructure facilities in order to implement new investment projects.

126 billion budget funds have already been allocated for this purpose, 454 new investment projects are being organized, within the framework of which 134 thousand jobs will be created.

Your decision to write off two-thirds of the regions ' debts will allow you to keep the funds in the regions and direct them to investment projects and infrastructure development, primarily in the municipal sector.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is almost another 1 trillion rubles-potentially our source for development. This is a powerful solution, which, of course, will greatly help the development of the regions.

Today, a strategic initiative of the Government is being implemented – this is the "Infrastructure Menu", in which we have collected all the measures of federal support for the regions. This allowed us to start addressing the issues of removing infrastructure restrictions for the socio-economic development of the regions at a new level. According to regional reviews, infrastructure budget loans have become one of the most effective and popular development tools.

For the period 2021-2026, we have provided 1 trillion budget loans, of which more than 500 have already come to the regions, 190 billion rubles of special treasury loans. Work is also underway on 150 billion DOM.RF infrastructure bonds, which are being used to build more and more facilities in the country. This will allow you to create thousands of new objects and update about 8 thousand public transport units. And due to the decisions taken, the construction of the metro will continue in five regions: Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, St. Petersburg, Samara, and the rolling stock in Moscow and St. Petersburg will be updated.

Construction of an unprecedented volume of wastewater treatment plants along the Black Sea coast will also continue. In addition, we have updated 6.5 thousand public transport units as of today. Thanks to the decision to allocate 150 billion rubles, this work will continue, which will allow updating public transport and bring it to the regulatory level.

Your decision to extend the program of infrastructure budget loans in the amount of more than 1 trillion rubles will allow you to finish and continue all the projects that you have started. Part of the funds will be used to modernize the municipal infrastructure. The most important thing is that the regions will see their long-term prospects until 2030, and what will need to be done.

In accordance with your instructions, we will increase the pace of modernization of housing and communal services. Until 2030, we have prepared an unprecedented program for 4.5 trillion rubles - this is budgetary and extra-budgetary funds. We have collected all the programs there: Clean Water, modernization of municipal infrastructure ($150 billion annually), and support from the National Welfare Fund. According to the results of this program, we see that about 40 million people in our country will improve the quality of public services in a comprehensive manner.

Today we discussed in detail the plans for the implementation of your Message at the headquarters with the governors. We are also actively discussing with the Prime Minister the further extension of national projects and approaches to the implementation of these projects. I think that we will prepare comprehensive proposals in the near future.

You have set ambitious goals, the solution of which will directly affect the improvement of the lives of the country's citizens. These tasks are not easy, but despite all the difficulties, thanks to your support, the teamwork of the regions, the Presidential Administration, and the Government, the construction industry is steadily growing from year to year. We are fulfilling our plans and hope to be able to meet all the challenges you set.

Separately, Mr President, I would like to say a huge thank you for the attention you are paying. We have never seen such an unprecedented amount of infrastructure reconstruction, road construction, and housing in our industry. Thanks to this, we were able to complete all the tasks you set. We hope to continue to cope with these tasks in the same way. Thank you very much. The report is over.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

As we agreed, in the near future we will return to the issue of road construction – both at the Eastern Landfill and in the South of the country, and we will discuss this separately. Overall, the results are good, and I congratulate you and everyone who works in this field.

Now Marat Shakirzyanovich mentioned the construction of sewage treatment plants. Of course, in this regard, I would like to give the floor to Viktoria Valeryevna [Abramchenko]. In this regard, we have many tasks, all of them aimed at improving the environment, improving living conditions for our citizens. This directly affects people's health and contributes to the development of high technologies. There are really a lot of issues that we need to solve together.

Please, Victoria Valeryevna.

V. : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

In your Address, you paid great attention to the implementation of environmental transformations that are important for people. These include reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere, improving water bodies, eliminating landfills, switching to a closed-loop economy, protecting and restoring forests, supporting the volunteer movement and environmental civic initiatives, developing natural territories and saving wild animals.

Thanks to your unwavering support for environmental reforms in many of these areas, Vladimir Vladimirovich, there are significant results.

Special thanks to the environmental vertical, which is almost 80 thousand people, are expressed to you for the decision to raise wages for certain categories of employees.

In your Address, you noted the work of foresters, meteorologists, environmental inspectors, and people who are engaged in a very important task on earth – preserving the unique natural heritage of our country. Thank you very much for this decision.

I will report on the implementation of the instructions given by you in the framework of the Message in key areas.

The first block is clean air. Summary calculations of air pollution are already being carried out in 29 new cities participating in the project. For seven cities, this work was completed ahead of schedule. These are the cities of Abakan, Chernogorsk, Iskitim, Chegdomyn, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Gusinoozersk, Petrovsk-Zabaikalsky. By the end of April, we will prepare summary calculations for 22 more cities. Next year, we will increase our emission quotas and approve comprehensive plans to reduce them.

The main air pollution in the cities of the second stage of the experiment is associated with the burning of coal. Therefore, without waiting for the approval of comprehensive plans, we started implementing measures to reduce emissions with individual regions.

So, from the budget of the Krasnoyarsk Territory this year, 110 million rubles will be allocated for the transfer of private households in Minusinsk from coal heating to eco-friendly fuels.

As part of the concession agreement, seven low-capacity coal-fired boilers were closed in Chernogorsk. In addition, together with the regions and large enterprises, we will expand the network of air quality observations.

Implementation of projects in 29 cities will improve the quality of life of more than 6 million people by 2030.

The second direction concerns the elimination of dangerous objects. You have set a task to eliminate 50 of the most dangerous objects of accumulated damage by 2030, as well as to fully complete work on the territory of the Krasny Bor landfill, the industrial site in Usolye-Sibirsky and the pulp and paper mill in Baikalsk. The creation of all the necessary infrastructure at the Krasny Bor toxic waste landfill will be completed this year. Thanks to your support, we will fully secure funding and complete the liquidation work in Usolye by 2028.

We will choose the new 50 objects for elimination according to transparent criteria, based primarily on the greatest threat to human health and the environment. The relevant regulatory framework has been adopted. Previously prepared for inclusion in this list: a landfill with chemical production waste in the Luhansk People's Republic and the burial ground of the former Gorlovka chemical plant in the Donetsk People's Republic, sludge accumulators in the Republic of Crimea, Yaroslavl and Samara regions.

The next direction is related to the improvement of water bodies. On your instructions, we are including the united water project "Water of Russia" in the national project "Ecology". It includes activities related to the improvement of rivers and lakes, water supply to economic sectors, construction of wastewater treatment plants, and protection from the negative impact of water.

Our first priority is to ensure the treatment of contaminated wastewater in the amount of at least 1.4 cubic kilometers by 2030. For this purpose, an inventory of sewage treatment plants across the country has already been carried out, and facilities that carry out the maximum volume of untreated wastewater discharge into rivers have been identified. We plan to upgrade them first. This will reduce the anthropogenic load on the rivers of the Oka, Baltic, Volga, West Caspian, Irtysh, Kama and Don basins.

In order to fulfill your assignment, we are implementing the "zero pollution" principle for the unique ecosystem of Lake Baikal. It is planned to build 25 treatment facilities in the Baikal territory.

Another task is related to the formation of a closed-loop economy. Its main goal is to attract the maximum amount of raw materials from waste into circulation.

You have set us the task of recycling at least a quarter of the volume of municipal waste generated. This requires capacity and incentive measures. In particular, as part of the reform of expanded responsibility of manufacturers and importers, decisions were made to establish the responsibility of manufacturers for the disposal of the entire volume of released packaging from 2027.

The Government has defined a list of goods that require the use of secondary raw materials in their production during public procurement. A legal ban has been established for storing secondary resources from waste since 2030.

You have set the task of constructing eight eco-industrial parks necessary for waste disposal. Six such facilities are already under construction in the Moscow, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and Stavropol regions.

27 residents in these eco-industrial parks signed agreements to open 36 production facilities at the sites under construction with a total private investment of more than 18 billion rubles. Additionally, we are working with the regions and businesses to create 400 waste management facilities by 2030.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, conservation of biological diversity and development of eco-tourism are equally important areas.

According to your instructions, tourist infrastructure will be created on the territory of all national parks by 2030. The Government has already determined the list of objects that can be created.

This year, recreational capacity will be calculated in all national parks and plans for recreational activities will be prepared, and parts of national parks that are possible for such activities will be identified.

This year, more than 80 million rubles will be allocated to 19 national parks to create visitor centers and ecological routes.

On your instructions, we will continue to work on the conservation and protection of rare animal species. This year, a comprehensive plan for the conservation and restoration of the snow leopard will be approved. Events are planned in the Sayano-Shushenskiy Nature Reserve, Sailugemsky National Park, Altai Nature Reserve and Ubsunurskaya basin.

At the end of this year, the second Przhevalsky horse reintroduction center in Russia will be opened in the Khakass Nature Reserve.

We plan to approve three strategies for the Amur tiger, gray whale, and bowhead whale, as well as a recovery program for the Central Asian leopard.

A total of six new reintroduction centers for rare and endangered animals and birds will be established by 2030. We will continue to support the volunteer movement. On your instructions, we will create a fund for environmental and environmental projects. Vladimir Vladimirovich, all instructions will be fulfilled.

Vladimir Putin: Victoria Valeryevna, as for people who work in the field of environmental protection, unfortunately, this often happens where the type of activity of a person is associated with such key, most important tasks for the country, very often people who are dedicated to their work work there. Of course, we have a lot of debt to them, and their income level does not correspond to the importance of the cause they serve. Therefore, these decisions are long overdue. We just need to make sure that they are executed in a timely manner and without any deviations. First.

Second. Whatever you look at from what you just said, everything is important. It is only necessary to bring it to the end. Usolye-Sibirskoye, Krasny Bor and other similar objects are simply dangerous, it is dangerous to keep them in this form. A lot of work has been done, but we need to see it through to the end. I hope that it will be so.

Here, both air emissions and water pollution are important. I'm just asking you to work out all this absolutely in detail and with the financial and economic block in the Government, so that there are no delays here. [My Emphasis]

Poof! and the transcript ends just like that. Well, from what was presented, we already knew the level of ambition within Putin’s Address goals, and Russia’s Ministers are ready to make them reality. Dr. Hudson will smile when he reads Putin forgave debt to foment development and it was called a “powerful solution.” As was revealed today, Putin’s challengers for Russia’s presidency admitted to being in favor of what’s planned while suggesting emphasis be applied more closely in several areas, all of which will continue to be discussed at monthly meetings as the year goes by. The level of economic stimulation this policy will provide is hard to gauge. The goal is to surpass Japan, but IMO Japan financialized to the point where its genuine GDP is already lower than Russia’s and thus Russia’s already attained that goal. Lifting all Russians out of poverty is an unspoken goal but one that IMO needs to also be emphasized.

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