Transcript:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

This is the first meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency. Today we will discuss the priorities of our work and talk about specific projects. First of all, I would like to point out that the agency has already begun its work: preliminary work has been carried out in relation to its structure, staff schedule, financing and other instruments, without which it is impossible to start practical work. It has begun setting up its regional network, which is highly important – we have been saying this since the very beginning of the project. The first pilot projects will be launched in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Tatarstan; agreements have been signed with Vnesheconombank and the Russian Venture Company. I very much hope that these development tools will be actively used in the Agency's work, that they will assist in the preparation of projects and, of course, in organising their funding.

There is something I would like to emphasise, which I consider to be very important in terms of overcoming the so-called administrative barriers. Many of you present here are aware (and for those who aren't I'll repeat) that there is currently an appointed person at every ministry and government agency responsible for working with the Agency. At least, this is what I have been told. I will look into whether this is really the case, but every agency now has a deputy head responsible for work with the Agency and for assisting in the promotion of its projects without excessive bureaucracy.

Following this logic, we have together determined 12 strategic initiatives. They include the promotion of high-tech medium-sized businesses on global markets, the establishment of a national system of competences and qualifications in different sectors of the economy, the creation of mechanisms to support leaders and talents, and so on. There are many projects behind each initiative. By now, over 2,500 proposals from different areas have been submitted to the Agency for consideration. One example is the set-up of an industrial cluster to manufacture electric tools by modernising the Izhevsk mechanical plant, and so on. There are many such initiatives and proposals, and I am not going recount them all now.

I would point out that achieving success in implementing these initiatives depends not only on the efforts of the Agency or on federal assistance. To a large extent, this success will depend on the ability of Russian regions to follow the logic of reform, to improve the business climate, to eliminate the barriers that we have talked so much about recently, that hinder the implementation of constructive business ideas. By the way, we had a detailed discussion on the topic at the investment forum in Sochi. I am aware that proposals on how we should proceed down this path have been drafted together with Delovaya Rossiya. And we can discuss them today.

Broad implementation of the standard of support, and the organisation of such events – support to medium-sized businesses and to initiatives (which we have also been talking about since the beginning) – is a very important part of our work. We need to formulate our principles and to understand the current standard of a favourable business climate.

I consider guaranteeing that investors' rights are observed by regional authorities to be of the most fundamental importance in this respect, if we are talking about these problems at the regional level. We need to simplify the arrival of new companies as much as possible, and to eliminate various barriers for launching projects, construction and manufacturing. Meanwhile, there are, of course, other problems in our life that are also well known to everybody. These include various dubious proposals "to share a stake" when working together with the authorities, strong recommendations from local officials to choose tools that are far from the best and partners that are far from the most promising – in terms of business interests, that is, but they are very promising from the perspective of these authorities.

Moving on. One of the key provisions of the standard I have mentioned is the set-up of a council for attracting investment in every region of Russia. We have a lot of relevant structures on the federal level. I recently met with representatives from leading international companies. This was within the framework of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council, but I believe it would be a good idea to set up councils for attracting investment on the regional level, where so far there are none, and I am asking the heads of regions, governors and heads of republics to do so. Once again, I am addressing the regional heads: I would like you to chair these councils personally. I know that you have a lot of work on your hands, but if a regional governor delegates this critical task to his deputies, highly talented, energetic and active though they may be, the result will be lower than if the region's top figure is personally at the helm. These councils should include representatives of the business community and heads of territorial departments of federal agencies. This is also very important, because it is necessary to coordinate the work of all structures, upon which the implementation of these projects depends, at the regional level. It is necessary to ensure that work at these councils is as transparent as possible. I would very much like for their meetings to be broadcast on the Internet or on regional TV channels. The technology of introducing this standard will be determined in six pilot regions: the Kaluga, Lipetsk, Sverdlovsk and Ulyuanovsk regions, the Perm territory and the Republic of Tatarstan, which have already accumulated a good deal of positive experience working with investors. Later, we will apply this practice to other regions as well.

Let me emphasise once again: introduction of a single standard of support to businesses should help actively develop regions, and this is the point of our work.

In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to another side of our work together. We created this agency in order to provide talented and goal-oriented professionals with the opportunity for self-fulfillment. In the first place, we conducted preliminary work with many of our colleagues that had passed through the preliminary selection stages, and we talked to those who wanted to realise their potential, including in government service. And everyone who said that they wanted this and who, in our opinion, met today's requirements, will be included in the federal personnel reserve. I very much hope that in the future, when forming the Russian government (we have repeatedly discussed this with President Medvedev), we will pay attention to these people, keeping in mind that modern, efficient individuals are needed at all levels of power, if they are willing to devote themselves or at least part of their life to working in government structures. It is very important for us to involve these people in practical work, and to the point, the Agency could consider setting up a special platform for this. For example, it could be called the Young Leaders' Club, or something else, but we should ensure that all people who are united by common interests and common ideas, who want to participate directly in the development of their region, town or the entire country, can have the opportunity to communicate with each other directly. We should ensure that this communication does not stop, but instead that it continues and is supported at both the regional and federal level, and above all by the Strategic Initiatives Agency.