Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked regional officials to accelerate the process of transferring land for development. "At the local level, we are seeing that they (regional officials) have once again started to hold onto land, to delay the auctioning process. Therefore, I have a direct order for regional officials: fix this situation," he said at the meeting of the Presidium of the Council on National Priority Projects in Tambov.
The prime minister noted that the national projects had been highly effective: "The impact of the national projects is obvious, and so we have made a critical decision to continue them and supplement them with new initiatives and measures if need be."
At the same time, Putin noted that many regions have been struck by abnormal heat and drought, and asked government officials to monitor the situation closely and respond promptly to any agricultural problems.
Prime Minister Putin's introductory remarks:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
Today we'll discuss our objectives and plans for priority national projects from 2011 through 2013.
The draft budget will be finalised soon, and now we must link budget resources with our plans in education, healthcare, housing and agriculture.
National projects were conceived in 2005 as instruments to carry out systemic reform in key sectors. We focused on four issues that have the greatest effect on quality of life.
We drew up a comprehensive plan, set specific benchmarks, selected specific agencies to implement the plan, and put in place a special system for funding and, most important of all, oversight. This approach has proven effective, which can be seen here, in the Tambov Region.
In my view, without a doubt the most important effect of the national projects has been an increase in life expectancy from 65 to 69 years. An increase by four years within this relatively short period is a major success. These figures are a result of our effective investment in people and people's wellbeing.
Housing construction has also increased by 37%, from 43.6 million square metres of new housing in 2005 to 60 million square metres in 2009. Agriculture has grown by 20%. And we're building innovative, high-tech centres in education and healthcare.
The effectiveness of national projects is evident. This is why we have decided to continue them and expand them to address new issues if necessary. And so I'd like to highlight several points we should take into account when working on national projects.
First, the situation in social services has changed greatly. Schools, universities, clinics and hospitals have received a great deal of new equipment and books in recent years. And so now the critical issue has become people's ability to use modern technology. In fact, a lack of skilled employees has become an issue for agriculture, which is becoming one of the most high-tech sectors of the Russian economy.
To avoid a growing shortage of skilled employees in the future, training and retraining programmes should be prioritised through the national project Education and addressed through other projects.
Second, we should eliminate the disparities that can reduce the effectiveness of national projects.
Russia has become a world leader in the global grain market, and therefore we need to quickly catch up in logistics, storage and processing.
The state has increased demand in the housing market significantly through its benefits for war veterans, service members and other social groups, which in turn has given a boost to the mortgage market. Up to 80% of the families that have taken advantage of maternity capital are expected to use this money to improve their living conditions.
Therefore, we need additional measures to encourage housing construction. New housing should be affordable, energy-efficient, eco-friendly and comply with modern standards of convenience
I have to admit that in some regions local authorities are holding on to land and delaying auctions. I am asking regional authorities to root out these practices. You must provide land for construction as fast as possible.
We'll review the progress we have made in eliminating administrative barriers in the construction industry at one of the next meetings of the Government Commission on Regional Development.In addition, the Federal Fund for Housing Construction Assistance will set tough standards for housing costs and the efficient use of land resources. The fund is designed to provide stability in the housing market, where it has taken on a very important role.
Yesterday we discussed our plans for this issue, for construction, with several colleagues. I agree that we have stimulated demand or, at any rate, supported it throughout this period, but we should not forget about the industry's own potential. We must lay the foundations for the future: this means the foundations for new construction sites, the foundations for the construction materials industry, etc.
Third, through the national projects we carried out several so-called pilot projects to test modern approaches in education, healthcare and comprehensive land management, and we have accumulated significant and very useful experience.
Now we are to apply this experience in all regions of the Russian Federation. Here much will depend on the outlook of the regional governments, on their initiative and willingness to change.
At this point I think it would be appropriate to recall that we are taking into account the results of regional and local governments' efforts to modernise social services in our evaluations of their performance.
Fourth, as before, all national projects must improve the demographic situation and the quality of human capital. They should also increase the life expectancy (as I said in the beginning), reduce mortality and boost the birth rate in this country.
Obviously, much here depends on the situation in healthcare. We will continue our programmes in this area, such as the birth certificate programme and our programmes to provide regular medical examinations, nationwide immunisations, preventative care, and better treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, tuberculosis and traffic-related injuries.
By 2013 Russia will have 1,000 healthcare centres, as well as 330 trauma centres located along federal highways.
The proportion of the population with access to high-tech medical care should increase to 76% in 2011, up to 80% in 2012 and up to 86% in 2013.
And it is obvious that the demographic factor also affects our other projects: it is important to take into account in housing construction, in introducing new teaching requirements and in efforts to increase social services in rural areas.
Investing in human capital or, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn put it, "investing in people," also means paying special attention to the needs of people with disabilities. Thus, the Education Project should focus on distance learning programmes for people with disabilities. We were at just one centre, where we saw how this project is going in Tambov. I consider this a good example.
Fifth, despite the limited budget during the downturn, we did not scale back our national project commitments and did all we could to preserve their funding. We even launched a number of new programmes. And this means that we are especially responsible for using budgetary funds wisely.
I must admit that there are delays in construction of high-tech medical centres, which is an important priority. Let me emphasise that we must take comprehensive measures to resolve this issue in the shortest time possible.
Also, I see a danger in the bureaucracy growing accustomed to national projects and seeing them as nothing special. We cannot and will not tolerate this outlook. I mentioned this already at the beginning, and you well know that the national projects were successful because we concentrated our administrative and financial resources on them and imposed special oversight on the use of these resources. And these ingredients for success cannot be forgotten. Because the goals pursued by national projects are too important. We cannot let these projects become routine.
The implementation of the national projects should serve as an example of success and creativity. This is what we should strive for.
In fact, we have done well as far as this goal is concerned so far, and I don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue.
Thank you. That takes care of my introductory remarks. Let's get down to work. Mr Zubkov, please go ahead.
Viktor Zubkov: Mr Putin, colleagues,The implementation of the priority national project Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex has been in progress since 2006. In 2008, it was transformed into a government programme to develop the agriculture industry and regulate agricultural products markets until 2012.
The project was instrumental in a total agriculture production growth of 20% from 2006 through 2009. It also expedited livestock development with an increase of 76% in poultry production, 40% in pork production, as well as a 4.9% growth in milk production.
The entire sector's profitability increased to 9.7%. Russia now has grain export status. We are third in the world; with growth of almost 25%.
This was possible because of government support for the agro-industrial complex - during these four years, 331 billion roubles have been invested. It should be said that the agro-industrial complex has turned out to be rather amenable to effective government support.
Allocation of subsidies stimulated business to invest their own resources and to borrow funds. In the last four years in Russia, 997 livestock facilities have been built and renovated - this is a completely new level of production and people change with such modernised projects.
Along with the implementation of the national project, a large pool of agricultural professionals has appeared. We have met with some of them today.
It needs to be said that in the Soviet era, there were some good individual figures - and there was one Hero of Socialist Labour - he had a milk yield of 6,000 kilograms of milk for one forage cow - but now there are entire districts and regions that are milking 6,000 kilograms or more, with a milk yield of 8,000-10,000 kilograms becoming the norm in Russian agriculture.
Russian agriculture has come a long way in the last few years.
Vladimir Putin: He was awarded the status of Hero of Socialist Labour just when he achieved a milk yield of 6,000 and now he milks 8,000.
Viktor Zubkov: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: But he's done so without a Hero, star or other awards.
Viktor Zubkov: Yes, and he received a good tractor today.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, he did. That's true.
Viktor Zubkov: Yes. Colleagues, the government is adopting customs policy measures in a timely manner in order to protect the domestic market. Just last year and this year, the government adopted more than 20 resolutions to place quotas on meat, increase import duties on milk, cheeses, rice, raw sugar and agricultural equipment. Implementation of the planned measures has stimulated the growth of investment activity in the agribusiness. In these last two years, the sector has attracted more than one trillion roubles in loans from Russian banks.
Even past year, the difficult year of 2009, the government was able to promote stable growth rates in the sector thanks to anti-crisis measures. This year, the positive trend in the sector has been sustained. As of June 1, agricultural production growth was up 103.6% year-over-year, including an increase of 17% in poultry production and 26% in pork production. There is also growth in milk production. The production growth trend is proof of the effectiveness of a systematic government policy in the agro-industrial complex.
In addition, our key goal for the sector until 2013 is to facilitate a transition to qualitative growth. As you, Mr Putin, have already noted, development of infrastructure, processing, transport and sales of agricultural products are lagging behind production growth.
The agribusiness is aware of the need for technical and technological modernisation and for lowering production costs. During the national project years, many government support measures, as I mentioned, have proven effective, but a number of them need improvement, primarily in the mechanism of purchasing intervention. We need to optimise the costs of conducting the latter and introduce market and charging instruments. The Agriculture Ministry needs to expedite this work.
The activity of the institutions implementing the national project - Rosselkhozbank and Rosagroleasing - needs to be revitalized. Rosselkhozbank must become a full-fledged driver of growth in the sector by creating conditions for increased access to, and quality of, banking services for the industry, lowering interest rates on loans and the risks associated with granting loans.
Rosagroleasing, apart from the functions it performs today -agricultural equipment and pedigree livestock purchasing - must also transform its regional structures to modern centres with comprehensive technical services and more importantly, consultation services. This should be a logical extension of its current operations, and such instructions have been issued and Rosagroleasing is working on these tasks. The priorities for development during 2013-2017 and prospectively for 2020 need to be determined based on the need to form a qualitatively new profile for agriculture. Again, this is the fundamental modernisation of production and processing facilities, the development of effective transport and logistics infrastructure, the establishment of new export channels, the development of production genetics in livestock and new pedigree materials in seed production.
Today, milk plant owners correctly pointed out, during our visit to the milk plant that a large number of milk cows are sent to the slaughterhouse. Of course, this is not wise stewardship. In Soviet times, the system was the following - there were specialised farms which collected these milk cows, fed them and then when they reached a weight of 400 kilograms or more, they were sent to the slaughterhouse. There are no such farms now. But really, there are many people in the industry who want to raise livestock, and the government must think how it will stimulate this activity and perhaps subsidize raising livestock. I think that this hint is normal and timely. I think that we and the Agriculture Ministry must consider what methods to use to achieve the rapid growth of beef production, which for us is really our weak point.
I want to say that a programme needs to be introduced to develop the processing and sales of agricultural products based on the potential of consumer cooperation. We are now working on this.
A few words on the social aspect - since 2006, the national project's priority line of endeavour is providing housing for young families and experts that live on farms. Since 2008, the federally targeted programme for social development has become an integral part of the government's overall programme.
Among the priorities are housing for young families and experts, rural schools, medical and obstetric stations, water supply and gasification of rural communities. The government has allocated 32.5 billion roubles over four years for these purposes, and a total of almost 200 billion roubles, including extra-budgetary funds, have been allocated for social development.
As a result, 13 million square metres of housing have been commissioned for 200,000 families, including those of 58,000 young experts, as well as 44,800 gas points - here the level of gasification has increased to 51% and 9,100 water lines -also good growth in this department.
Another subject altogether is rural roads. I would like to ask you, Mr Putin, in today's protocol resolution to record the need to conduct monitoring of the status of the construction of rural roads. This social element is a priority item for us. During the crisis, specifically last year and this year, funding for the social development of rural areas has been significantly decreased. We prospectively have to make up for this shortfall.
I would like to emphasise once again that the national project has become the driver of dynamic growth in the sector and has enabled us to complete tasks in providing the country with food commodities. The formulation of the next stage of the government programme based on the balanced approach to development of production and social tasks in the agro-industrial complex enables us to provide for a better quality of life on the farm.
I must not fail to mention the draught. We were talking about this just today before the meeting. Unfortunately, we have draughts practically every year. This year is no exception. The Agriculture Ministry currently has staff analysing the situation and assessing the damage. Next week, we will examine these findings from the affected regions.
By the way, we worked on a similar problem last year, and based on last year's results, Mr Putin, you held a meeting in Orenburg and issued a directive to develop mechanisms for protecting producers from such risks. First and foremost is crop insurance, of course.
All over the world, insurance is the main instrument for protecting agricultural producers from financial risks. Direct budgetary funding to assist agricultural producers has been substituted for this normal market mechanism.
Nevertheless, I think that we will not procrastinate and will sort out the situation next week. I will inform you, Mr Putin, on the entire situation, and then you can determine what decision to make - either you will hold a meeting or you will issue some sort of instructions. The overall objective is not to leave people in a bind, provided for targeted aid and find the best solution to the problems that really exist, but we must not give rise to dependency. Everyone must make a concerted effort, particularly on a regional level, at the agricultural companies themselves, and, of course, those of us at the federal level must also resolve these issues. Thank you for your attention.
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Vladimir Putin's closing remarks:
In closing I want to say that I don't doubt that you and I are on the right path. We have correctly chosen the correct approaches. These really are our priorities- public health, education, agriculture, construction - residential construction first and foremost. And priority national projects have played a positive role; they have given us the impetus necessary to develop these areas.
As I have mentioned, we will continue this work. Resolutions have been adopted on some of these components, as you know. We will move from priority national programmes to state development programmes, involving the regions, municipalities, and clearly, the budgetary capabilities of the Federation in the achievement of goals within the context of these government programmes.
But whatever they are called, these objectives will remain priorities for many years to come.
Thank you for your teamwork. I wish you every success!