Ladies and gentlemen,

We are conducting a visiting meeting today. Our main goal is to evaluate employment and personnel training at primary and secondary vocational schools of the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District in 2011 and to discuss problems in this area.

First of all, I'll briefly report on the main indicators of the employment market in the said regions and their development pattern in 2010 and early 2011.

The total number of unemployed considerably decreased in the district in 2010 (from 913,000 to 690,000), although there was a slight increase in the number of unemployed workers in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and in the Chechen Republic.

In the first two months of 2011, unemployment increased in practically all of the district's regions (from 690,000 to 747,000). It then subsided to 685,000 in March.

Although general unemployment in the district has recently dropped, in March 2011, according to the latest data of Rosstat (Federal Service for State Statistics), it was more than twice the national average (15.5% versus 7.1%).

The highest levels of unemployment were recorded in Ingushetia (48.7%) and in Chechnya (34.4%).

Registered unemployment dropped in all of the district's regions in 2010. At the same time, beginning in early 2011, the number of registered unemployed workers grew in all regions of the district with the exceptions of North Ossetia-Alania and Chechnya.

Registered unemployment in the district has remained practically the same from January to April – 8.7%. Still, it is almost four times higher than the national average (8.7% against 2.1%).

It is particularly high in Chechnya (41.3%) and Ingushetia (21.8%).

The number of vacancies registered by employers with the district's employment services rose by more than 5,300 or 31.6% to reach 22,000 in April.

Meanwhile, although the risk coefficient on the district's labour market decreased from 23 to 17.4 since the start of the year, it is still much higher than the national average (1.2).

The risk coefficient on Ingushetia's labour market has dropped by more than 17 times since the beginning of this year, which is a positive development.

All of the district's regions have regional programmes for this year that provide for additional measures to reduce risks on the labour market. They are expected to extend to some 52,000 people. The total cost of these programmes is 2.841 billion roubles, including federal budget subsidies in the amount of 2.694 billion roubles.

The government has transferred a total of more than one billion roubles worth of subsidies from the federal budget for funding regional programmes at the first stage (40% of the total) to all of the district's regions.

Colleagues,

The aforementioned figures for the district's labour market show that the measures to promote employment both through delegated powers and under the regional programmes have failed to achieve their desired effect.

That is why the government has decided to include new targeted measures in the district's regional programmes in 2011. These include:

Vocational training, retraining, upgrading of skills and practical training for employees of organisations operating in the district's regions;

Provision of incentives to employers outside the district to fill vacancies in their companies with unemployed workers from the district.

Almost five months have passed since the start of this year, but the majority of regional programmes and new targeted measures leave much to be desired.

Measures under the 2011 regional programmes are either not being properly executed, or work on them has just begun in the majority of the district's regions, with the exceptions of the Stavropol Territory and North Ossetia-Alania. This is the first point.

Second, not a single region has started implementing the three new measures that were included in the regional programmes exclusively for people that live and work in the district.

And, finally, the application of funding allocated to the regional programmes for 2011 has been extremely slow as of April 1, 2011. Chechnya has spent 1.3% of this funding and Ingushetia 6.3%. The Republic of Karachayevo-Circassia has not spent a single rouble. In other words, it has not even embarked on its regional programme.

At the same time, the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia-Alania have already applied more than 17% of the allocated money, which is practically the national average.

Under the circumstances, the heads of executive authorities of the district's regions must pay close attention to the impermissibly low rates of spending on federally allocated funding and subsidies for the implementation of regional programmes.

In this context, I'd like to ask you to make it your personal responsibility to follow up on this spending and the implementation of the regional programmes in 2011.

On June 8, all regions of the Russian Federation must report to the federal government on the progress of regional programmes in 2011.

Colleagues,

It is clear that the labour market in the district's regions is not in good shape. We must cooperate together in drafting measures to improve it.

I'd like you to explain why you have been so slow to execute regional programmes and make prudent use of the federal funding that you received.

We must acknowledge that previous measures to reduce tensions on the labour market and provide for temporary jobs during the crisis are now a thing of the past.

Our goal is to give permanent jobs to the population, preferably in high-tech sectors, and to achieve this goal, we must develop our human resources. This is the objective of the new measures established under the 2011 programmes.

It is hardly possible to enhance the investment appeal of the district's regions otherwise.

I'd like to hear your specific proposals on fundamental measures to reduce unemployment in the North Caucasus.

Perhaps we should together consider new mechanisms of cooperation between federal and regional executive bodies and adjust, if need be, the content of regional programmes with due account of the North Caucasus's unique position.