Prime Minister Putin's introductory remarks:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
Yesterday I met with business representatives, and I have just finished a meeting with trade unions. The government is working intensively to prepare the budget for 2011, the main points of which we will discuss tomorrow. Also, this week we're planning to present our final economic scenarios for the next three years.
While drafting the budget, we held a series of meetings to discuss measures to ensure stable prices in key industries. I've just mentioned one such meeting, where we discussed limits on the prices of natural monopolies and measures to counteract inflation.
But before we reach a final decision, I'd like to consult with you and ask for your support in parliament to help pass the draft budget, which will be necessary to implement all our plans.
A key feature of the budget for next year is that it should trigger recovery and innovative growth in the Russian economy, and ensure that social obligations are met unconditionally as we come out of the downturn.
Conservative forecasts suggest that GDP will grow by more than 3% or 4%. I repeat, these are conservative forecasts, and there are some experts who are more optimistic. I believe that if we manage to implement our plans, growth could be even higher.
We need to get a better return on our support for small and medium-sized businesses, and that includes eliminating administrative barriers, taxation incentives for innovative businesses, special economic zones and industrial parks, as well as other tools for development.
Increased labour productivity and investment, primarily through extensive modernisation of production facilities, should also contribute significantly to economic growth.
The basic social and economic forecast for 2011 to 2013 suggests that investment will increase annually by 6% to 8%, while labour productivity will rise by 3.3% to 3.8%.
However, it'll take time to overcome the negative effects of the global recession fully, rebuild the economy and reverse the budget deficit. This is why we cannot expect a sharp increase in budget revenues in coming years, which we could have spent on items other than servicing our debt.
The budget will continue to run a deficit for the next few years, which is why we must adopt a highly responsible approach for each expenditure item, concentrating resources on high-priority budget items and trying to stay on schedule to reduce the budget deficit to 3% in 2012. The same strict discipline is also absolutely necessary for regional budgets in order to avoid discrepancies and ensure the stability of the entire budget system.
Moving on, at yesterday's meeting at the Government House we announced measures to stabilise prices in the key industries and curb price increases for natural monopolies and in the housing and utilities sector.
I'd like to ask the members of our party and all deputies in the State Duma to speed up their work on the legislation to regulate utilities prices. We need to eliminate all loopholes that allow prices to be inflated unfairly and standardise requirements for the quality of utilities services.
This legislation includes amendments to the Housing Code that will give regions the necessary powers to set rates of utilities services consumption. Municipalities use these powers ineffectively: their decisions are often uncoordinated and haphazard.
Even though last year the overwhelming majority of municipalities acted responsibly, a little more than a thousand decisions were enough to spark popular protest.
And this protest was legitimate, I must admit.
We have already introduced amendments to Article 157 of the Housing Code in the State Duma.
Second, this legislation suggests giving regional executive bodies the power to regulate utilities prices and to delegate these powers only to those municipalities that are capable of implementing them properly. This draft law is now being developed.
Third, we need uniform standards for the quality of utilities services. We should start by standardising the rules for providing such services, and the federal government requires the appropriate authority for this purpose. We have introduced amendments to the Housing Code in the State Duma.
Fourth, the companies managing blocks of flats should be made accountable to ordinary people and government bodies, and their operations must be absolutely transparent. People should know what utilities services they are paying for.
The Ministry of Regional Development and the Federal Tariff Service are working on this legislation.
United Russia members in municipal and regional legislatures should keep a constant eye on utilities prices and respond quickly to people's complaints about extremely high mark-ups and monopoly abuse.
Another priority for the spring session is the legislation reforming public administration, which will improve the quality of administrative procedures.
I'm referring to the law establishing basic standards for government services at the federal and local levels, which will allow us to set up the necessary framework for an e-government.
As we promised, we'll seek to extend the period during which small and medium-sized businesses can buy out real estate on easy terms.
The amendments to the Urban Planning Code are already before the State Duma. This legislation will eliminate redundant site development requirements.
In the near future the government will consider amendments to the Tax Code to stimulate innovative businesses, as well as draft laws regarding mandatory medical insurance and health protection.
These acts should be adopted as soon as possible. I know that United Russia deputies in the State Duma have proposed a series of other economic and social initiatives, such as a draft federal law that gives families who have lost the primary breadwinner the right to receive two pensions if the breadwinner died while serving in the armed forces. The government will certainly support such initiatives.