31 october 2011

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Aslan Tkhakushinov, the head of the Republic of Adygea

Participants:
The conversation focused on housing construction, local programmes to modernise healthcare and secondary education, and raising teachers’ salaries.

Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Hello, Mr Tkhakushinov.

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Good afternoon, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: How is it going? You have reported a production growth of 5.8%, which is above the country’s average.

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Speaking about the economy, I can tell you that we have tripled the republic’s budget in 4.5 years – from 5 billion to around 14 billion roubles.

Vladimir Putin: I know that.

Aslan Tkhakushinov:  Crop productivity has improved. We have seen record harvests in the past few seasons, especially compared with what we harvested during the Soviet era. The region ranks second in Russia in terms of crop productivity. Well, it is true that Adygea’s gross regional project is smaller than in other regions, but by crop productivity, the region comes only second to the Krasnodar Territory. Fixed investments here have reached 64 billion roubles.

Vladimir Putin: What happened with housing construction? Why has new housing shrunk 20%?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: In fact, our own data suggest the opposite. We have increased housing construction through private projects – not federal investments. We have seen significant growth … I have the figures here.

Vladimir Putin: Well, these figures here say (looking at the reference notes) that 64,900 square metres of housing have been commissioned, down 19% from last year’s level.  As of October 1, only 51.1% of the annual housing construction plan was met. Also, a 79.9 million rouble federal subsidy was allocated to the region this year for capital repairs and for improving the grounds surrounding apartment buildings. How is this work progressing?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: It is in progress.

Vladimir Putin: No problems?

Aslan Tkhakushinov:  None.

Vladimir Putin: Well, the housing and utilities sector is growing at the same pace as across the country. Are there any problems that you think are important?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Problems… Well, strange as it might seem, we don’t have enough preschools and kindergartens. Maybe it’s a nationwide problem. But we hope to have this almost resolved next year. Maybe Adygea will be the first region to do so. There are innovative rapid construction companies in Kolomna, the Moscow Region, and in Kostroma. They are good professionals. We have hired one of them to build two facilities for 300 children. But the waiting list still includes 4,000 children. I think that we’ll eliminate this problem next year.

There’s one problem… Well, I wouldn’t put it this way. We aren’t facing anything that we can’t handle. We’ll resolve everything in due time. The most important things are peace,  accord and understanding. We have understanding. We use arguments to convince people about political issues, and the Sochi Olympics.

Vladimir Putin: What about the programmes to modernise secondary education and healthcare, are they progressing?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: They are progressing tangibly. We have recently discussed this with Ms Golikova. We have started these modernisation programmes ahead of the rest of Russia. We have already invested about 1.5 billion roubles. We have procured CAT scanners at a reasonable price when they were overpriced elsewhere. The procurement process was transparent, and we haven’t received a single criticism. We have built five hospitals and are currently upgrading the Central Republican Hospital. We still have 800,000 roubles left to invest in the project. Another 100 million roubles will be invested in the city hospital, which has never ever been renovated or modernised.

Vladimir Putin: How big was the federal financing that you received for these programmes?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: About 841 million roubles, although we applied for more. But we have enough money for now. We have been able to balance our modernisation budget up until this point.

There is something else. A large fitness centre is being built in Adygea, as well as a swimming pool. The Central Stadium of Adygea is being modernised. We still have 800 million roubles to finance the three projects. We would like to invite you to visit, so that you can see how beautiful they are.

Our Physical Fitness Institute and judo school turned 40 years old yesterday – Yakub Koblev (president of the Southern Federal District Judo Federation), Vladimir Nevzorov, our first Olympic Champion… We also have Olympic bronze winners – Murat Khasanov, who heads our physical fitness committee, won 11 unarmed combat world championships.

If you have time, people in Adygea feel hurt because you haven’t visited us for eight years. If you find an opportunity, we’ll leave you a letter.

Vladimir Putin: All right. Have you increased teachers’ salaries?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Of course. No criticism. We have raised them 30% for the time being, and will keep raising them as we grow. We also provide assistance. We have implemented the old federal target programmes successfully in healthcare, education and agriculture. We have built more village health centres. People are pleased.

Vladimir Putin: Great. Could you tell me again – when are you planning to raise teachers’ salaries to the nation’s average level?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: They have already reached the average level across the region’s industries. The average salary is 13,500-14,000 roubles in Adygea. They are beginning to make as much.

Vladimir Putin: You mean teachers?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: So what they are making now is the average monthly income in the republic, across all industries. Right?

Aslan Tkhakushinov: Yes. But we still think this is not high enough.

Vladimir Putin: Good.