Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Surinov, we are planning to conduct a population census this year. I understand it is scheduled to begin in October.

Alexander Surinov: That is correct.

Vladimir Putin: We do not have much time left, then. How is the preparatory work going?

Alexander Surinov: This work is continuing normally. We have already conducted a census on the Yamal Peninsula and in two settlements of the Magadan Region. People have responded well. Our polls show that even without any large-scale educational activities, 80% of the population is planning to participate in the census.

Everything is ready with regard to the regulatory framework. The only remaining issue is the enactment of the ethnicity amendment in the census law. The State Duma has passed the amendment in the first reading. I think everything should be fine here. We are thankful to the government for supporting our efforts: all contracts have been signed, all purchases are under way, and 18% of the forms have already been delivered.

What are the concerns with this? The amount of work is enormous: we need to hire 400,000 census takers, plus approximately 100,000 instructors, who, essentially, are senior census takers. In addition, 25,000 people need to be hired as census division managers. That is a huge number of people. They will be working only from one to two months. Of course, there are a number of possibilities here. Currently, our regional offices are working closely with regional authorities and municipalities to find the right candidates.

In large cities, these positions will mainly be filled by students, and in rural areas - by the rural intelligentsia, which we have traditionally relied on, as well as municipal officials and social workers. Nevertheless, we do have concerns regarding the selection of offices for the census divisions, but I think that together with the regional authorities we will find a solution.

I believe that we will have an up-to-date picture of our society and the census in Russia will become a part of global statistical data. This year, censuses will be conducted in such large countries as the United States and China. Our census will also attract special attention, as Russia is a large country both by the size of its territory and its population. The CIS countries will certainly be watching how we conduct our census. Therefore, I want to reassure you that there will be no problems with regard to the census.

Vladimir Putin: Has funding been provided in a timely fashion, is everything all right in that regard?

Alexander Surinov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: How much money has been allocated?

Alexander Surinov: In total, the census will cost 16.5 billion roubles. Of course, this is not a very large amount, but we have to make do with it. We certainly understand that our budget had to be cut due to the economic downturn. We also shortened the questionnaire slightly by removing the most costly and time-consuming questions. But we will still be able to obtain the relevant information from our regular statistical surveys, so there is no need to be concerned about it.

The salary for census takers is not very large. In fact, it is not exactly a salary, as they will be hired on a contract basis and paid 5,500 roubles, which is the basic rate under the contract. In the northern regions, they will be entitled to bonuses under the federal northern allowance programme. The regional authorities are providing us with all kinds of assistance. Our older employees say that in the Soviet Union the authorities were not as helpful on any level: federal, regional, or municipal. This means that the authorities realize that the census is important not only for statistics purposes.

Vladimir Putin: This is indeed important work. It is essential for the economy, in terms of addressing social issues, making defence plans, and developing various industries and sectors of the economy. All of this is really very important. How long has it been since we had a census?

Alexander Surinov: Eight years.

Vladimir Putin: Eight years. It's the right time then. I wish you success.

Alexander Surinov: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I know that you are transitioning to the OECD standards in economic statistics.

Alexander Surinov: Yes, we have begun this process, as we think that statistics should not delay our entry to the WTO. Joining the WTO and OECD are inter-related processes.

By June next year, we plan to have the assessment of the official Russian statistics in terms of their compliance to the OECD standards completed. The assessment commission pays regular visits to Russia; the next visit is scheduled for this autumn. We are gradually implementing the commission's proposals and remarks, but there is still quite a lot of work to be done. This primarily relates to the macroeconomic statistics. The OECD is especially concerned with the quality of the calculations of the GDP. It's also a very important task for us.

Why? If the statistics are consistent with the OECD standards, it means that our economy will be compared to the world's leading economies. This is very important, as it will allow us to avoid the possible criticism that our economy is not transparent and that its statistics are not accurate. Therefore, we are firmly committed to this goal and believe that we must implement these standards. This work involves not only statistics and Rostat (Federal Service for State Statistics) but also many other agencies.

Vladimir Putin: What are the latest statistics as regards unemployment and economic growth rates; is the trend still positive?

Alexander Suriniov: Yes. The trend remains positive. We have almost reached the average monthly rate of 2008 and have caught up by almost 99.1%. This is a decent growth rate. If we compare the five months of this year with the same period last year, the growth rate is more than 10%. This is quite good.

As for unemployment, it decreased by more than 500,000 people last month, which is also a decent rate. Today the unemployment rate is 7.5% compared with the 8.5% in the same period last year.

Vladimir Putin: Was it higher in the beginning of the year?

Alexander Surinov: Yes, in the beginning of the year it was higher. We need to remember that the rate varies by season. Of course, the unemployment and economic growth rates are the two factors that indicate that we seem to be emerging from the recession.

Vladimir Putin: Good, thank you.