Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: How are things going? Let’s begin with the infrastructure projects. Your plans include the M6 Caspian motorway, among others. How are you assessing the condition of these roads and what are your plans to improve them?

Oleg Kovalyov: The M6 Caspian motorway is in deplorable condition. It is outdated and narrow. As for the M5 Ural motorway, there is a federal programme for it that also entails a bypass road around Ryazan. All in all, Mr Putin, I have already raised the issue of constructing transport corridors with you because we need transport routes to connect north and south, east and west. Naturally, we are looking forward to this major project. The M6 Caspian motorway has been repaired a bit, but it is still not wide enough and poses complications for traffic.

Vladimir Putin: Our plans entail setting aside 500 million roubles to repair the motorway in your region.

Oleg Kovalyov: That’s great because the section of the motorway in the Ryazan Region is in the worst condition of all. The Moscow Region’s section is fine, but you can immediately tell when you cross the border between Moscow and Ryazan. That is why we are excited about it.

Vladimir Putin: I looked up the statistics. Unemployment in your region is significantly lower than the country’s average. That’s good.

Oleg Kovalyov: Unemployment currently stands at 1.5%.

Vladimir Putin: What programmes to reduce unemployment have you carried out?

Oleg Kovalyov: First of all, agriculture accounts for 30% of our employed residents, and we keep creating new jobs in this sector because we have a development programme for it that we have carried out despite the fact that we had a tough drought last year, and the harvest was not what we had hoped for. We are developing pig breeding, or rather meat husbandry, including pig and poultry breeding. We are advancing research in cattle breeding and forest planting. After good harvests, we decided to diversify this work. I’m referring to industrial crops, such as the sugar beet, oil-bearing crops and corn, to be processed in the Ryazan Region. We are convinced that crops grown in our region should have maximum added value through processing in the region itself.

Vladimir Putin: But your region’s cattle stock has somewhat decreased.

Oleg Kovalyov: Indeed, our cattle stock has decreased. But a larger milk yield helped us remain at the level of 2009. We have prepared new facilities to house the cattle that are to arrive from abroad. So I believe that our cattle stock will be restored.

Vladimir Putin: Please, keep an eye on it.

Oleg Kovalyov: I will.

Vladimir Putin: How do you assess the situation in industry?

Oleg Kovalyov: Against expectation, our industry performed fairly well in 2010. Industrial production grew 10.1%. This naturally had its impact on tax revenues.

Vladimir Putin: Your level is higher than Russia’s average.

Oleg Kovalyov: Yes, it is about 2% higher. In terms of small business, the growing number of small enterprises and those employed by them, we are among Russia’s leading regions, according to the Ministry of Economic Development. The ministry even awarded us two grants because we are doing good work in various municipalities in agriculture, forestry, the service sector, and commerce. I’ve looked up the statistics, and in certain municipalities we still lag behind in the number of trade centres per capita. At least there is room for further development.

Vladimir Putin: Fine. These are good indicators. And what is the situation in the social sphere, particularly in healthcare?

Oleg Kovalyov: We are optimising our healthcare network, including streamlining the number of overnight hospital beds, day beds, and health service networks. We are doing this work alongside national projects in healthcare. The same goes for education. When we speak about optimisation, some people think of schools being closed down. But we only close schools that fail to get a license. Basically, we are setting up a network of primary and secondary schools using major secondary schools as the basis. This network will span large distances and be established as a single legal entity with a single teaching staff. This should have an effect on the quality of teaching. We invested heavily in school facilities in 2010, and we will continue investing in 2011.

Vladimir Putin: How do you plan to get children to schools?

Oleg Kovalyov: We have just handed 21 buses over to schools. We intend to purchase an additional 67 school buses this year.

Vladimir Putin: I’ve recently visited Orenburg. People complain that the bus fleet is outdated and there are no modern buses of proper quality. Roads are in bad condition, too. These are two crucial components.

Oleg Kovalyov: Yes, Mr Putin, you again have it right – there is the issue of roads. Funds for road maintenance in 2011 will above all be allocated to school bus routes.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Oleg Kovalyov: Safety is our priority. Otherwise, no optimisation will be supported by the parents.

Vladimir Putin: Neither will it be supported by society and the government. Children are our future; they are the most precious thing we have. So, please, pay attention to this issue. Going back to healthcare, have you submitted your modernisation application and action plans to the ministry?

Oleg Kovalyov: Yes, we have submitted these documents to the Healthcare Ministry. The target figure has been identified. Naturally, as a governor, I may not be fully satisfied with it, but I understand that these funds will first of all be spent on overhauling and re-equipping our healthcare facilities. We have kept our regional programme on the same level. We are building two new maternity hospitals. We laid out the foundation last year despite economic difficulties, and we will also commission a perinatal centre. I must confess that we failed to commission it in December. Naturally, the wildfires had their share in the delays, but I don’t want to make excuses – we will commission it soon. In March, it will receive patients; it is currently undergoing licensing procedures.

Vladimir Putin: So, the first patients will be treated in March.

Oleg Kovalyov: Yes, it will begin receiving patients in March. The first women will then deliver babies at this centre.

Vladimir Putin: And specialists will be working. I’d be glad to see it happen.

Oleg Kovalyov: I was going to invite you.

Vladimir Putin: I’m speaking about the completion of the construction works. I request you to attest to this, too. Given that the healthcare modernisation programme envisages new standards, this should result in a pay increase for healthcare workers. You have certain problems in this area related to the level of healthcare workers’ incomes. So, I ask you to pay attention to this aspect when implementing the programme as well as to healthcare services provided for the rural population.

Oleg Kovalyov: Yes, Mr Putin, I will see to it. We will be increasing salaries in two ways – through the healthcare modernisation project and by optimising our healthcare network. With the funds that we will save thanks to these efforts, salaries can be raised.

Vladimir Putin: Understood.

Oleg Kovalyov: Indeed, the level of salaries is very low, shamefully low for the Ryazan Region.

Vladimir Putin: I will not cite the figures, although I know them, and they really are low.