Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Putin: How are you doing in your region right now?

Nagovitsyn: Judging by the year-end results, everything is fine, we’re doing just fine. We ended the year with previously unheard-of growth of 22.9%. I think that we are emerging from the crisis. Investments in the region increased by 23%, and investors are working quite well with us. We’ve prepared a good few platforms for various projects.

Putin: I’ve looked at the figures. Yes, they are quite good.

Nagovitsyn: The average wage rose by 12%, but the main thing is that we’ve managed to cope with unemployment. It rose in all other regions during the crisis, but in our republic it fell. We have developed a sort of “system” of our own, and all of our districts are introducing it. Today, we are using the anti-crisis measures that helped us maintain employment as an approach to establishing agricultural holding companies.

Using our own funds, we have helped farmers formalise their rights to own land.

They registered their individual farms and received 58,000 roubles each. In the Khorinsk District, 180 people joined together to form one collective enterprise. When they did so, they received the right to extra government support for technical retooling, the cultivation of new lands, etc. They received another 50 million roubles from the government. Now, it is a good, full-cycle company that maintains the entire process – from fodder procurement to the production of finished goods. We use this method across all our districts now, and things are going well. People now understand this, and they are making the transition from individual enterprises to collective businesses in their villages. Before the crisis, the unemployment rate in the republic was 13%, and now it is 10%, while registered unemployment stands at 1.9%. Our demographic situation is also good, with the population increasing by about 4,000 each year, and the birth rate is substantially higher than the death rate.

Putin: Have you secured funding for your public healthcare modernisation programme?

Nagovitsyn: Yes, we have.

Putin: How much are you getting for it?

Nagovitsyn: 3.1 billion roubles.

Putin: 3.1 billion roubles?

Nagovitsyn: Of that sum, 1.4 billion is for modernising healthcare facilities and purchasing new equipment, 200 million is for information technology, and another 1.4 billion (on average) will go on the introduction of new standards.

And we have something to boast of: we have taken a bit of a lead in healthcare now. The country will move to a new, entirely population and needs-based public healthcare funding system in 2013, but it is already in place in our region. We have introduced 21 standards, all of which have a solid economic basis, and with the help of federal funds, we will introduce another 11 this year. We use 94 standards in general medical practice now, and they work, six of them according to an entirely population and needs-based formula – that is, with all funds going to a primary healthcare centre that pays for everything, including the hospital stay, special care, and all other expenses. I went to Alexander Zhukov for support because we want to make the Republic of Buryatia an example in this field…

Putin: We have also discussed projects in tourism with you…

Nagovitsyn: We are actively working on a Baikal Harbour tourist area. With your support, it has been listed as one of the priority projects of the Siberian Federal District. This year, we’ll complete work on the internal infrastructure. We have tax residents at all sites there, and they are beginning to work this year. In 2013, our residents will build hotels on the sites. However, some problems may arise in this area, and I would like to discuss them.

Putin: Good.