Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Dudov, I have looked through the documents. In the first quarter of 2010, your region's industrial output exceeded nationwide levels by almost 100%. This was primarily due to the production of raw materials. The region has boosted gold and silver output by 20%.

Federal allocations make it possible to implement a number of construction projects, including the Kolyma motor road and its bridge overpasses worth over 500 million roubles. There are also some other important projects receiving hundreds of millions of roubles in funding. I would like to hear your assessment of how these projects are being implemented.

There are also some problems. The volume of wage arrears is declining rather slowly. The situation on the labour market is another concern. Let's discuss all these problems.

Nikolai Dudov: You are absolutely right to note that at the end of the first quarter the regional economy continues the same growth trend it saw in 2009. Even more positive growth has been chalked up in some sectors.

Naturally, the mining sector plays the leading role. Companies are obviously interested in developing mineral deposits. Such interest is motivated by current gold and silver prices on the global market. This, of course, facilitates investment in the sector and its subsequent development.

Apart from these positive trends, we are also facing certain problems. Such problems also concern the mining sector because we continue to produce placer gold, while prioritising gold-ore production. Mining companies engaged in such activity have difficulty taking out bank loans because they have small-business status and therefore cannot argue that they deserve full credit resources in order to expand their industry.

Anyway, we are taking action to tackle this problem. We established agencies to deal with this. Notably, I head a working group monitoring the labour-market situation. At the same time, we also cooperate with banks in order to convince them to issue loans, including to small businesses. We have seen some success on this front.

Naturally, we also consider federal allocations to be very important. We would find it difficult to tackle economic-development tasks without such funding because virtually all these allocations are invested in infrastructure projects. They enable us to expand regional and federal roads as well as the energy sector. This assistance is instrumental in maintaining regional economic-development rates.

The labour market has also been stabilised to a degree. As of March 1, 2010, the number of registered unemployed persons accounted for 4% of the economically active population. The breakdown for March 1, 2009 and March 1, 2008 is 4.3% and 4.28%, respectively.

The number of registered unemployed persons and overall unemployment tend to decline with the onset of the gold-panning season. This April, the number of registered unemployed persons makes up for 3.77% of the economically active population. The experience of 2009 suggests that unemployment levels will fall below 3% by the middle of the year. This highlights a certain stability on the labour market.

There are currently 2.2 registered jobless persons per vacancy. This figure used to be 2.8, which indicates that employment opportunities have been improved.

Unfortunately, you were correct to point out that there is the problem of wage arrears at three enterprises. Two of these enterprises have gone bankrupt, while the third enterprise, an aviation company, is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Magadan Airlines (MAVIAL), the largest regional company, went into receivership three years ago.

Vladimir Putin: Were these conditions evident before the crisis?

Nikolai Dudov: Yes, the situation was difficult even before the crisis because this is a special enterprise and its specialised property was valued at over 240 million roubles. Although the enterprise has been repeatedly offered for sale, not a single customer is willing to buy separate lots or the enterprise in its entirety. MAVIAL owes more than 50 million rubles in back wages.

MAVIAL has even tried to sue the Ministry of Finance. Due to the fact that it carried passengers at preferential rates at a certain period, the first-instance court ordered 42 million roubles to be awarded. Unfortunately, that was not upheld by the Supreme Commercial Court. Consequently, it is impossible to use this mechanism today.

The receiver has told me that potential investors, namely, private individuals from Moscow, have emerged. To the best of my knowledge, they are flying over to Magadan in order to reevaluate the company's property and to buy it under specific contracts. The sum raised will be enough to pay MAVIAL's employees. In effect, there is now the faint hope that the situation will be settled amicably.

Unfortunately, Magadanmost, another company reconstructing and building bridges, has been bankrupted due to tough competition on the construction market. These road-construction volumes have dwindled considerably. Still I must say we are not reducing allocations from all sources and are channeling substantial funding into the road infrastructure.

Vladimir Putin: How is the airport's reconstruction going? We are allocating almost 500 million roubles for these purposes.

Nikolai Dudov: I recently met with Alexander Neradko, Head of Federal Air Transport Agency. We have discussed this issue. Despite the complicated nationwide situation, 490 million roubles have been allocated to the airport's reconstruction. The airport, which currently receives all types of aircraft, has been certified. Some reconstruction projects, due to be completed this year, mean that it can already be called a modern airport.

Nevertheless, some infrastructure projects still require investment. The federal target programme for expanding the transport network stipulates additional funding for the airport modernisation. I believe that our upgraded airport will be fully operational, will be able to receive all types of planes and to expand passenger traffic.

The Russian Government's initiatives for carrying passengers at preferential rates are yielding substantial results. Over 13,000 people were carried last year, whereas the relevant quota totaled 19,900. I think their number will increase this year with the extension of the relevant deadlines.

I have to mention another extremely effective initiative aiming to support the domestic automotive industry. For the first time in many years, I handed car keys to the heads of municipal entities for vehicles purchased thanks to federal funding...

Vladimir Putin: Do you mean cars for municipal needs?

Nikolai Dudov: Yes, for municipal needs. Everyone is grateful for this initiative. Thank God, this project will continue to be funded this year. Consequently, it will become possible to strengthen this economic sector even more.