Vladimir Putin’s opening address:

Colleagues,

We all watch television, don’t we? We all know what is happening in the world. Each country has its own problems, but some of them are common for everyone, and these are issues concerning society and economy. For post-industrial countries and all of Europe, for instance, the demographic situation is the most pressing issue. Russia is no exception. Demography has, without exaggeration, a fundamental importance here. Each family in Russia and the country as a whole, as well as its future prospects – I am not afraid of such florid verbiage – depend immensely on how we address this problem. I am not going to enumerate the components of demography. There are many, and each is important. This is the first point.

You know, we have done a lot lately to change the situation drastically and there have been quite good results. I will not state the figures, as you are familiar with them. The birth rate has gone up, infant mortality is decreasing... The situation is changing for the better. One of the initiatives that we are working on is opening modern well-equipped medical centres, and perinatal centres in particular.

These are maternity hospitals, but they are equipped with advanced technology. We have a plan to open 24 perinatal centres – two federal and 22 regional – that will be supported by the common efforts of the federal and regional authorities. Nineteen of the regional and one of the federal centres – in St Petersburg – are now functional.

Within the past two months, centres for such purposes have opened in the Amur Region and the Trans-Baikal Territory. When I mentioned infant mortality, I wanted to stress that it is still quite high in Russia, with some 13,000 babies dying annually before they are 12 months old, and about 40% of them die within the first week of their life, or within the perinatal period. The centres are called “perinatal” precisely because they take care of a baby when it is born and if it has any health problems.

As I said, 19 centres are now operational and another one has been … Yes, two regions have just reported on commissioning their centres. And a centre in Krasnoyarsk will be completed in mid-December. The work is proceeding there according to schedule.

I would like to clarify what has happened after the opening of these perinatal centres. I will quote some figures. In regions where such perinatal centres operate, infant mortality is diving. Thus, infant mortality in the Kirov Region dropped by over 12% after the launch of a perinatal centre. It has decreased by impressive 33% in the Ryazan Region. Can you see the difference? Meanwhile, we have revisited this issue many times, discussing it with our colleagues from the regions in all sorts of formats. However, in Perm, Saratov and Kurgan, we still experience delays. Our goal today is not to listen to my emotional tirade or to look for someone to blame. We are here today to try and understand what prevents us from finishing this work and take the final decisions to ensure its completion in a proper and timely manner. We are not here to argue, but rather to make sure the task is understood by everyone and everything is done for its implementation. Now we will talk about this in more detail. Thank you.