Sergei Ivanov's speech at the meeting:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Let's start working. But before we proceed directly to the agenda, I would like to inform you of the following:
First of all, in accordance with the president's instructions from last week, the government held a meeting on the issue of organising stable financial support for the construction, repair and maintenance of general-use motorways. At this meeting, the government made a very important decision to establish a federal targeted road fund as of January 1, 2011; naturally, the funding sources for this have been determined. This is not exactly the same thing that we had before - the road fund. This is specifically a federal targeted road fund and that is the reason it is so indicated. Nevertheless, this is, of course, a very positive step in the effort to develop Russian motorway infrastructure.
I would like to point out that the money from this fund will be strictly targeted and will be used exclusively for the repair, maintenance, upkeep, renovation and construction of federal motorways. The resolution to establish a minimum limit or an amount of funds at a level no lower than that of the allocation, which we will disburse for these purposes in 2010, is also fundamentally important.
Accordingly, after established the fund, spending on road infrastructure will not be lower than that of 2010 and will not be altered based on the development of the economic situation.
Now as for additional sources for increasing funding of the federal road infrastructure, the government has arranged to purposefully use profits from increasing the excise tax on oil products, which, as a matter of fact, is a global practice. The introduction of tolls for vehicles that are more than 12 tonnes when using general-use motorways has been confirmed - I already mentioned this at a meeting with businessmen. We are dead set on charging for vehicles that weigh more than 12 tonnes, similar to what is done in most developed countries. I think that everyone can agree that this is a reasonable decision.
In addition, we will receive revenue from the addition of road service stations and we will get compensation for damage inflicted on federal motorways. These are currently being collected. Only now they will be added to this fund according to the targeted procedure.
At the same time, we are naturally working through the issue, since we are raising excise taxes - somewhere we must offer relief for motorists, for people who drive conventional passenger cars. I am referring to the possibility of the transport tax being completely abolished in 2011. I imagine that this news will delight many motorists, since the people who rarely use their vehicles will pay considerably less. And now, as you know, it makes no difference whether you drive one day per year or every day - the transport tax is the same for everybody. This is simply unfair and so accordingly, we are trying to make the collection system for the targeted road fund more impartial.
Now the expenses for the upkeep of a car will be determined primarily by the amount of gasoline consumed.
There is something else to which I would like to draw your attention. The legal opportunity to organise regional road funds is also specified. Suitable amendments need to be made to the Budget Code.
Summarising everything I just said, I would like all members of our commission to take note of the following: In this case, we will have to draft many regulations. All of the decisions that I mentioned will have to be made by amending federal laws. Therefore, we are already behind on time; in essence, there are six months left. That is why we have no time to warm up. I call upon the Ministry of Transport primarily to actively make the appropriate proposals and corrections to legislation.
One more deviation - and we will move on to the agenda. The issue that has received broad public interest, been actively discussed in the media and was even the focus of a parliamentary inquiry into the government was the matter of Sheremetyevo Airport. The parliamentary commission on transport initiated this.
I am referring, as I said earlier, to the substitution of the alphanumeric designations of passenger terminals at Sheremetyevo International Airport to Latin letters as well as to the hypothetical discomfort, the inconvenience for passengers and the battle for the purity of the Russian language.
On that issue, I want to say the following: The use of Latin letters in naming buildings and facilities that are part of airports' infrastructure is not prohibited by Russian legislation. That is my first point.
Second, the difficulties that may occur or that have occurred among some Sheremetyevo passengers, of course, were of a temporary nature, and they were not at all caused by renaming numbers with letters, but by the appearance of new terminals in this airport.
I would like to remind you that Sheremetyevo is one of our main hubs and major airports. Three new terminals have been built in the last three years at Sheremetyevo Airport. Consequently, Sheremetyevo has five large passenger complexes, five terminals and another one, by the way, a business terminal that is under construction.
At the same time, the terminals are far from one another. It is common knowledge that there are two terminals on the north side and three on the south side, and they were not designated in a linear fashion. This really disoriented and confused passengers in the first few days after the terminals opened.
On the other hand, if we had retained the numeric designation of the terminals, then we would get the following - first there would be Terminal 1, then Terminal 3, then Terminal 5 and then Terminal 4. What do you think? Does this lead to confusion? I think it does.
And if we really follow the logic of the requests addressed to the government from the Commission on Transport, then we would have to, if we were being consistent and principled, remove all Latin letters from the names of VIP lounges at all airports, change everything into Russian and also change road signs all over the country and "P" signs for parking - then we would have to change signs throughout the country and not have the letter "P," but the Russian "П" for parking. How much would that cost and does it really need to be done?
I talked about this with Boris Gryzlov. He is satisfied with the explanations he has been given and so the case is closed. Everything will be the way that Sheremetyevo's administration proposed, and the government supports this decision.
And now the agenda: Today, we have three items.
The first is the plan for measures to implement a transport strategy for the Russian Federation for a period until 2030. This, by the way, is associated with the issue of federal targeted funds for roads.
The second is the measures for government support of local and regional shipment via air transport.
The third is the progress of the reorganisation of Svyazinvest Group.
Remember that the government approved the Transport Strategy for the Russian Federation for a Period until 2030 in November 2008. This document was approved because of the understanding of the need for the accelerated and balanced development of the country's transport system, which would facilitate conditions for increasing the share of innovation in the economy, improve quality of life and initiate the transition to a model of diversified spatial development for Russia.
Implementation of a transport strategy must enable Russia to reach its the main goals directly connected with the functioning of the transport sector: specifically, bringing the figures for mobility of the population closer to those of developed countries. You know that we are far behind many European and Asian nations in terms of this figure, and we will not be able to improve human capital in the country without it. We will decrease the disparities in the transport services in various regions and social groups (we still have transport inequality - it is gradually decreasing, but it remains). We will increase the competitiveness of domestic goods and services on global markets by providing a balanced development of our transport system. An increased efficiency of passenger and cargo transport will optimise transport costs in the economy and increase access to transport services to the public.
The tasks that I enumerated remain as important as they were before.
The Ministry of Transport, along with other federal executive agencies, has drafted a plan for implementing the strategy for the first stage in 2010-15.
Transport Deputy Minister Andrei Nedosekov will explain the content of this document in detail.
In addition, I cannot help but mention something that I think is important. When we adopted this strategy, we were living in a completely different economic situation. The financial crisis hit in the third quarter of 2008, and as a result of the decrease in profitability of budgets at all levels, not just the federal budget, funding for the transport sector of the nation's government was cut considerably. We abandoned many investments that were planned in the sector. This was also impacted by the reduction in private investment, as distinct from budgetary and federal investment. At the same time, there was a drop in air cargo and passenger traffic at the transport companies themselves; this was particularly noticeable with the railways.
Why am I talking about all of this? Remember that the main goal of the first stage of the strategy until 2015 is the completion of the modernisation of the transport system though targeted investment and eliminating obstacles. The government is currently discussing possible conditions for the functioning of the economy and the main parameters of the forecast for socio-economic development through 2013. The basic outlines of funding for the next few years are already mapped out, and at least the Ministry of Transport is well aware of them.
Accordingly, in today's discussion, I would like to hear not only the Transport Ministry's proposals, but also assessments from the Transport Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry on the feasibility of reaching the planned figures and indicators in the strategy until 2015; and I also want to hear about the commissioning of transport system facilities accounting for the previous budget cuts. And here, of course, attention should be focused on eliminating existing obstructions in the transport system.
Regarding the second item, we will, of course, consider it in conjunction with individual regions of the Russian Federation: primarily the Far North and similar regions.
Considering the geographic and climatic features of our country, the problems that we have in this field are the most important as applied specifically to these regions.
In addition, aviation is really the only form of transport for most population centres - no alternatives are foreseen.
Finally, the difficult economic situation in these regions complicates the state of affairs with air transport. Added to this is the high cost of jet fuel in remote regions, sparse population density, the low financial solvency of different layers of the population and as a result, this produces a very high cost for regional air transport service.
Taking all of this into account, the government had also previously undertaken a set of specific measures to support this type of air transport service. I am highlighting just the two main ones - structural transformation through the establishment of federal state companies and the various forms of subsidising air transport companies from budgets of all levels with the goal of having them break even as a result of regional and local air transport services. We cannot speak of development of this sector of air transport until we ensure that they break even.
Therefore, in order for a full-scale solution of the problem that not only supports but develops regional air transport service, we need to work out and implement a whole package of measures that include an array of tax breaks and social benefits for air carriers working specifically in this field. Valery Vukolov will tell you about the proposals in this field.
And within the context of our third agenda item, we will examine the progress of the reorganisation of Svyazinevest Group. Remember that the concept and the plans for the Svyazinvest reorganisation were approved by our commission in May and December 2009. Reorganisation involves establishing a united company on the basis of Rostelekom by merging regional telecommunications companies that are majority-owned by Svyazinvest into it.
As a result of structural changes in 2011, we must establish a company with the state holding a majority stake, which, as we all hope, will be successful not only on the landline services market, where Svyazinvest and Rostelekom are practically monopolies, but in those areas of the market where private companies are actively and freely involved. This means primarily broadband internet access, mobile communications and digital television.
The new company established on the basis of Rostelekom should actively, and I would even say aggressively, enter this market, in which it had never been present before.
According to my information, all measures in the reorganisation plan are being carried out in strict compliance with approved deadlines. I would like to hear more detail about how things are going and what problems have cropped up from Svyazinvest Director General Yevgenia Yurchenko.
That's our agenda for today.