Vladimir Putin’s opening address:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

We have a busy agenda today. I would like to dwell on several issues I consider the most important. Let me start with the issue that is linked to our safety policy and improved labour protection at production facilities. About 40% of all industrial workers are employed under arduous, harmful or dangerous working conditions – this is about five million people or even a little more – 5,106,000 out of 12,349,000 industrial workers. Can you imagine this big army working under these harmful or dangerous conditions?

Needless to say, this is largely due to our economic structure, technological inferiority and the backwardness of some industries. This is why (this is one of the reasons) modernisation goals are included in our programme of national development until 2020 and this why President Dmitry Medvedev keeps talking about it. This is also why it is so important for us to be consistent in re-equipping industry, introducing innovation and modern environmental standards, carrying out renovation and creating quality jobs. Inefficient jobs and risk zones in the workplace must become a thing of the past.

At the same time we cannot completely abolish production in hazardous working conditions overnight. Under the circumstances, our duty is to guarantee the rights and lawful interests of working people and to create a system that will protect the health and life of people on the one hand, and will prevent dishonest employers from saving money on safety standards and ignoring environmental demands, on the other.    

Incidentally, there is also an economic factor involved and it is very serious – direct economic losses from poor working conditions and inadequate labour protection run to about two trillion roubles every year – this is 4.2% of our GDP. I’d like to emphasise once again that our major economic and social task is to ensure production safety.

We have already raised the financial and administrative responsibility of employers substantially for a failure to observe proper working conditions, but we need to adopt other comprehensive steps in this respect – from the introduction of labour safety educational programmes in higher education institutions and vocational schools to the improvement of the performance of monitoring and supervisory bodies.

You know, we often visit the facilities of various enterprises – many of you accompany me on these trips – and people often ask questions about  additional payment for specific working conditions. It is true that people sometimes fear that they can be deprived of some fringe benefits as a result of manipulations on paper. Unfortunately, it happens quite often, or happened until recently, that a workplace is reported safe on paper, but nothing changes in reality.

We must take charge of this. We have already introduced the necessary changes to the regulatory documents. From September 1 onwards, workplaces and working conditions may only be certified by independent accredited organisations in coordination with trade unions and according to rules that are transparent and understandable for employers and, most importantly, for their employees.

Speaking of which, the average level of compensation for hazardous working conditions in Russia has grown substantially, and this is a positive development. In 2004, such compensations amounted to just over 49 billion roubles; in 2010 they amounted to over 102 billion roubles.

The efficient occupational safety and health system must be based on modern information technologies that can also be used for statistical monitoring and to report on the situation in general, to analyse the data by industry and to provide a basic forecast. Such mechanisms must be introduced widely as soon as possible.

As far as the scientific standards of occupational safety are concerned, we must use the most advanced regulations and standards of the International Labour Organisation as a benchmark. Such regulations must be our basic criteria for creating quality and safe jobs.

Today, we will discuss additional measures that should be taken in occupational health and safety, which is an element of our policy to improve the quality of life. These two notions are inseparable.

The next point on the agenda that I would like to address concerns the interests of millions of our citizens. It is a state mechanism for dealing with enquiries from the people, the society and the entire economy. What do I mean? As you know, only a month ago, on October 1, the federal agencies adopted a system of electronic interaction in providing public services. These are 300 plus services that are provided to the population by 56 federal agencies, including the Pension Fund, tax and immigration services, and road police. These services respond to a whole range of needs.

We can already see certain results. Previously, people had to search for the necessary information, make extractions from official documents, and appeal to every possible agency to get necessary certificates, at times repeating the process four or five times. Basically, they had to do the work for the bureaucrats. Now, the required data must be communicated electronically through inter-agency channels. I will stress, they must be communicated. Whether it is being done or not, we do not know. Today up to 10,000 enquiries are received and recorded daily. Fairly enough, this number will grow. So, I ask the heads of agencies to take personal control of improving this system's efficiency. Moreover, the next stage is sharing experience with the regional and local government levels.

By July 1, 2012, all of the government bodies in the regions and municipalities must adopt the electronic interaction system. I emphasise that July 1 is the deadline. We expect that some regions – where work is in progress and the proper information base is available and the channels work – will complete the work much sooner.

We are considering allocating 670 million roubles from the federal budget annually to support such regions. So, we will also discuss the relevant changes to the Information Society programme today.

At the same time, I have to stress that as we adopt a new format, problems start to emerge. First of all, the citizens lack information on this new procedure and extra opportunities that make applying for public services more convenient. The websites of many government agencies – colleagues, please take what I am going to say very seriously – are not updated with information about changes to the procedure of providing public services or changes to the list of documents required for submission. There is no such data on the information boards at government offices where people come with their concerns. I ask the heads of agencies to pay close attention to this fact. These shortcomings must be eliminated as soon as possible. This is not difficult at all. The government executives must check – and see with their own eyes – which information is available and which is not. This is not difficult, but we must each take personal control of it.

Moreover, I should emphasise the importance of monitoring the ministries' and the agencies' work. It is inadmissible to require the applicants to submit documents that have already been uploaded into the electronic database. What we need is efficient feedback and constant dialogue with the people, public associations and business communities. We are implementing this project for the people and it is for them to decide if it is successful. We, in turn, must know how they evaluate this work.

Finally, there is another topic we must discuss today. We must talk about distributing federal aid to balance regional budgets this year. As you know, we provide substantial funding to the regions, including funding for tasks that must be resolved at the regional level. These are programmes to modernise healthcare, upgrade schools, improve administrative centres and build roads in rural areas.

The wage fund for federal public workers has increased by 6.5% from October 1. We have agreed that the regional authorities will make equivalent increases for regional public workers with the support of the federal budget. Today we must make a decision on allocating over 15 billion roubles to 60 regions for an inflation-based salary adjustment. In addition, part of these funds will be used to reimburse some territories in the Far North and in the Far East for fuel and electricity expenses. There is also a proposal to channel an additional 7.2 billion roubles into priority projects in the regions, including housing, roads, sport and social facilities and so on.

The necessary sums have been approved, reserved and must reach recipients in a timely manner.

Now, I suggest we start discussing issues on today’s agenda.