Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

Let’s begin with an update. Our data on healthcare is good for the nine months of this year. This is partly owing to the implementation of the Healthcare national project.

The death rate from cardio-vascular diseases has dropped by more than 7%, from traffic accidents by almost 5.5% (5.4%) and from cancer by 1.6% – this is not much but it's still an improvement. Ms Golikova, what can you add to this?

Tatyana Golikova: Mr Putin, colleagues, in the first nine months of this year the overall death rate has decreased by 5.9% compared with the similar period last year. The death rate from alcoholic poisoning has dropped by 16% and from TB by 7.2%. As for cardio-vascular diseases, if we divide them into two groups – heart attacks and strokes – the figures come out different. The decrease in the death rate from heart attacks is 5.6% as you mentioned, and from strokes, 12.1%. Our figures on strokes have never been so good. The death rate from cancer has dropped by 1.6% and from traffic accidents by 5.4%.

But I’d like to draw your attention to a different point. As you know, each year 14 or 15 regions take part in various healthcare programmes. The statistics for the first nine months of this year reveal how much the death rate has decreased in the regions that take part in the profile programmes – in Moscow is has dropped by 21.7% and in the Lipetsk Region by 17.6%. The Ryazan Region has brought down the death rate from traffic accidents by 42.6% as compared with the national average of 5.4%.

Vladimir Putin: Is this the death rate from traffic accidents?

Tatyana Golikova: Yes. The relevant figure for the Voronezh Region is 27.4%. As for cancer, the Republic of Mordovia has decreased the death rate by 14.4% and the Tambov Region by 11.8%, although the relevant national average is 1.6%. A major oncological centre will be opened in the Tambov Region in December, I believe, around the middle of that month. They have invested their own money and federal budgetary funds into it and will have a very good facility for helping cancer patients.

One more area to which I’d like to draw your attention is high-tech medical aid, both to adults and children. We have recently increased budget financing for these purposes by 2.5 billion roubles. All of these funds will be used to provide assistance to 323,000 patients. So far, we have helped 266,232 patients, of whom 43,928 are children, or a bit over 80%.

Cardiovascular, oncology, trauma and orthopaedic are the most popular areas. High-tech centres that were commissioned earlier are operating rather effectively. As of October, these centres have helped 20,362 patients of the total number that I mentioned earlier.

We are conducting audiology screening tests as part of the nationwide Healthcare project. This year, we will do 1,400 high-tech surgeries for children with poor hearing compared with 200 in 2007. We are now in the position to fully cover the needs of children born with this disorder.

Vladimir Putin: It is very important to perform this surgery early in a timely manner.

Tatyana Golikova: Yes, so a child doesn’t develop a disability. As of October 1, 795 cochlear implantations have been performed. We have reports to confirm this. We are now addressing issues connected with rehabilitating these children because it’s important for a full recovery.

I would like to mention additional medical check-ups. We have two types of check-ups in the nationwide project – check-ups for disadvantaged children – such as orphans – that are performed annually, and check-ups for adults. Plans were included to have 2.978 million adults having their annual physical check-up this year. Only 52.5% have actually been checked as of October 1. Some regions are lagging behind, such as the Kamchatka Territory, Magadan Region, Tver Region, Chukotka Autonomous Area, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Ivanovo Region with less than 50%, which is below the national average figure. Speaking about the effectiveness of this work, I would like to say that 55% of those checked during their additional check-up were found to need further examination or medical treatment. In other words, this is very important for an early diagnosis, as these are mostly employable people. In short, these are the results.

Vladimir Putin: These are very good numbers.

Tatyana Golikova: We had a natural increase in the population this September. The increase was 10.7% in August and 4.2% in September. This has never happened before.

Vladimir Putin: You need three months? Good. Thank you very much.

Mr Kozak, you have chaired the interdepartmental commission on preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games. How do you assess the situation? How is work progressing? Test competitions are due next year already, aren’t they?

Dmitry Kozak: Yes, Mr Putin, the interdepartmental commission of the Presidential Council for Physical Fitness and Sport met to consider all of the issues related to getting prepared for the Olympics. We focused on large-scale events in the mountain cluster, which will be held in 2.5 months. International competitions on all of the facilities in the mountain area will be held as part of the Olympic programme.

Vladimir Putin: Tell us about the facilities and the events. Perhaps, we will also take part in them.

Dmitry Kozak: There is a world alpine skiing championship on the mountain skiing centre…

Vladimir Putin: World alpine skiing championship? When?

Dmitry Kozak: In February.

Vladimir Putin: Please go ahead.

Dmitry Kozak: Also in February – since we are trying to run everything within the Olympic time frame – we will hold biathlon competitions.

Vladimir Putin: Biathlon?

Dmitry Kozak: Ski races, ski jumps, bob-sleigh/luge and Nordic combined. As requested by the International Ski Federation, we will hold international ski jumping competitions in the summer.

Vladimir Putin: In the summer?

Dmitry Kozak: Next summer on artificial turf. Yes, this is standard practice for ski jumping. They often hold such events in the summer.

Vladimir Putin: You need practice.

Dmitry Kozak: It’s a large-scale event with 3,578 athletes participating from different countries. There will be 2,000 service personnel and 1,110 accredited journalists.

Vladimir Putin: We can participate in the entire programme, except for one event. We will not take part in the ski jumping. I jumped only once, and I don’t want to do it again.

Dmitry Kozak: Some time ago, I told the builders of the Olympic facilities that if they don’t do their work on time or there are serious violations, they will do the ski jumping. No candidates for ski jumping so far. I hope that until February 1…

Vladimir Putin: I need to go there. I haven’t been there in a while. I also need to see the work in progress.

Dmitry Kozak: Go there by all means. Several members of the government have recently been to Sochi and saw the facilities for themselves. You can already see the architectural outline of some facilities in the Imereti Valley – it’s a breathtaking sight. As you may know, they are building more than 800 capital structures at the same time. Over 800! We are now in the final phase. Next year, all the facilities will be ready for test competitions (the mountain cluster will be ready this year). All supporting facilities (utilities and transport infrastructure) located in the Imereti Valley (the coastal cluster) should become operational by the end of 2012. The first test competitions should be held at one of these facilities as early as September.

Preparations for the Olympic Games are being carried out under nine programmes simultaneously. In addition to the programme to build Olympic projects, which is the most important document regulating the construction of modern infrastructure for international competitions, there’s also a master plan that includes 54 areas of focus, over 3,000 events and inspection points that the IOC uses to monitor progress in preparations for the Olympics. The IOC says that we are following the master plan very successfully. This is the plan that was developed by the IOC and us together based on previous Olympic Games.

We are implementing the programme for providing medical services during the Olympics and creating a barrier-free environment in Sochi. By the way, the Paralympic competitions in several sports will be held for the first time in Russia in March 2012. We have drafted a detailed action plan: there will be 455 preparatory events in the run-up to test competitions, including additional events to establish the barrier-free environment in the mountain cluster so that people with disabilities can participate in the competitions and enjoy comfortable accommodation at the hotels. Notably, the last such plan was approved yesterday. It’s about the staff training programme for the Olympic Games. They approved the schedule for training about 23,000 staff members from 942 organisations located in …  

Vladimir Putin: 23,000 people?

Dmitry Kozak: Yes. We must train people in the hospitality business. They come from all service areas, including hotels, petrol stations, dry cleaning, postal offices and so on. This is a very important programme that requires coordinated efforts on behalf of vast numbers of organisations. As I said earlier, another 942 organisations that had never participated in preparations for the Olympics have come on board. Before that, we had 89 investors, both state-owned and private (most of them private) who were engaged in the construction.

I would like to use this opportunity and address all federal ministers, since all of them are involved in the preparations for the Olympics. These plans and programmes define our behavior across different areas of focus. They determine specific deadlines and key contractors. We need all our actions to be well-coordinated horizontally, so as to be able to do things on time and with high quality. I would also like to invite everyone to visit the mountain cluster beginning February 1. I hope that you will enjoy spectacular competitions. Last year, we held the European Cup at a fairly high level, which was also noted by the International Olympic Committee.

Vladimir Putin: We will go there. Before that, we will need to hold a meeting there. I must take a look at these facilities and see if they are ready.  

Dmitry Kozak: Yes, perhaps after the New Year…

Vladimir Putin: Please arrange a meeting there. Thank you.

Ms Skrynnik (addressing Minister of Agriculture Yelena Skrynnik), we are used to hearing about hosts of problems whenever you are present at a meeting. One of them is rural roads. A couple of days ago I met with transport organisations, and this issue was brought up again. We have not allocated funds for the construction of rural roads in past years, because it’s not our area of responsibility. It lies with municipal and regional authorities. However, this year we decided to support the regions that are actively trying to address the problem and allocated 5 billion roubles to this end. What’s going on there, how are these funds being used?

Yelena Skrynnik: Yes, Mr Putin, for the first time ever, five billion roubles were allocated upon your instruction for rural road construction this year. They will be used to build 550 km of roads and connect 270 towns and villages with highways. Regional authorities report that all 550 km will be opened for traffic before the end of 2011. I would like to praise the authorities in Tatarstan, the Oryol and Saratov regions, Udmurtia and the Kurgan Region, where these roads have already been commissioned. Given that another 18 billion roubles will be allocated for road construction before 2013 (that includes co-financing from regional budgets), they will build many more access roads to main highways.  In addition, they will build roads to cattle farms, infrastructural facilities and schools, thus improving the quality of rural life.  The funds are being used and the roads are being commissioned. Regional authorities inform us that another 2.8 billion roubles were allocated in addition to these 5 billion as co-financing.

Vladimir Putin: Please continue this work. Identify the most important issues and address them.

Mr Kiriyenko (addressing Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Federal Agency for Atomic Energy, or Rosatom), this year and last year, too, we helped Rosatom purchase assets at a time when they were not particularly expensive and represented a great value for the agency and for the nation. Rosatom has shown a good track record recently. What’s your take on it from the standpoint of commissioning facilities here in Russia and abroad?

Sergei Kiriyenko (head of Federal Agency for Atomic Energy and director-general of the State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom): Thank you very much, Mr Putin. First of all, I’d like to thank the government once again. With their help, not only did we manage not to fail in a time of crisis, we even carried out this expansion. Mr Putin, I can tell you that we made our main uranium purchases at that time. Today our company Atomredmetzoloto is second in the world in terms of reserves, and we know what we need to do to be the first. We have the least expensive structure of reserves. We own 20% of the American reserves, which would have been difficult to imagine some time ago…

Vladimir Putin: What’s the ratio?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Twenty percent of the American reserves belong to the Russian company.

We have reserves in Canada, Australia and Namibia. As we reported to you, we have recently acquired a uranium deposit in Tanzania. We told you about our hypothesis regarding it – that our geologists would be able to show that the deposit has more reserves than had been revealed when it was sold. We bought it in June and have carried out additional prospecting over the last four months. As a result, we have revealed that the deposit contains 30 million pounds worth of additional reserves. That's 50% more than the initial estimate.

Vladimir Putin: But you have invested your own funds in the prospecting, haven’t you?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Yes, we have. But this prospecting has made us realise that what we have costs nearly double the amount we paid, and that's not all. We are continuing to work with the Tanzanian government and we are sure we will increase our reserves again.

Mr Putin, the main result is that we have fully met our uranium requirements. We have enough for all plants that we are building at home and for all international contractual agreements for their construction abroad. We won’t need a single extra gram of uranium because we have enough reserves for a hundred years into the future.

As for launches, this is a special year – we have never before, since the Soviet times, launched so many nuclear energy projects. First, we have commissioned a unique project in Iran’s Bushehr. The station was put in commission in September. Importantly, it is under full IAEA supervision. All international experts recognise the thoroughly civil character of the project. The station can produce only energy and nothing but energy.

Vladimir Putin: How many people do you employ there?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Mr Putin, we had up to 3,000 specialists working there, depending on the scope of work. On average we employ 2,500 people.

Vladimir Putin: How many are left?

Sergei Kiriyenko: A little under a thousand people are left there because their function is to help run the plant. We have agreed with our Iranian partners that we will launch it one stage at a time. We have trained Iranian personnel, who are now working together with our specialists. We will gradually be withdrawing our specialists from there during the next few years as we and our Iranian colleagues become confident that they are doing a good job. This is an issue of practice rather than training alone.

Vladimir Putin: Have the Iranians expressed a desire to continue building new units?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Yes, they have, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin: What do you think about this?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Mr Putin, we have received instructions to this effect and we are studying the proposals. The construction of nuclear energy units does not evoke any doubt in the international community. There are no sensitive issues involved here, so we can carry out this job without a problem. We will have to finish drafting inter-governmental agreements, and we are doing this now together with the Foreign Ministry.

Vladimir Putin: Well done.

Sergei Kiriyenko: Mr Putin, our next facility is located in China. This year we have launched two unique projects with our Chinese colleagues, including China’s first fast neutron research reactor.

Vlaidmir Putin: I believe this is the third reactor of this kind in the world, isn’t it?

Sergei Kiriyenko: The fourth if we…

Vladimir Putin: The fourth.

Sergei Kiriyenko: It's true that it was suspended in France, so this one is the world’s third operating reactor. China is now the fourth country in the world to possess fast reactors. They were built using our technology and with the help of our experts. We have also put another unique facility into operation – a uranium-enrichment plant in China – and about a year ahead of schedule.

Vladimir Putin: Then the first four countries are Russia, the United States, France and Japan.

Sergei Kiriyenko: Are you referring to fast reactors?

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

Sergey Kiriyenko: There aren't any in the United States.

Vladimir Putin: Then France, Japan, Russia and now China, yes?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Now China has joined in. At one time the Americans suspended these programmes, but now they want to return to them. This will take some time. All estimates indicate that fast reactors represent the next generation of nuclear energy.

And, Mr Putin, we have also finished construction of the first unit for the Koodankulam nuclear power station in India. It’s up to the Indian government to decide to launch it. They are currently discussing this issue, but we have already done our part. This is also a unique project, the first project in the world that has taken into account the post-Fukushima security requirements. Its passive systems will guarantee the complete safety of the plant if there is no electricity, water or even personnel. This is a universally recognised project now.

Vladimir Putin: For how long will these systems guarantee the plant’s safety?

Sergei Kiriyenko: Indefinitely. We have calculated that the current IAEA requirements…. Before the Fukushima accident, the period lasted 24 hours and after it, 72 hours. But our heat removal systems are based not only on water but also on air. It is impossible to restrict the flow of air, and for this reason the plant’s passive systems will ensure its safety for an indefinite period of time even if there is no electricity, water or personnel. We have completed this facility.

Vladimir Putin: And what about fuel supplies to Indian plants?

Sergei Kiriyenko: We have contracts to supply Indian plants with fuel. Moreover, in consideration of your agreements with your Indian counterpart, we are working on the establishment of a network of joint ventures both in India and Russia. Some of them will produce fuel.

Vladimir Putin: I see.

Sergei Kiriyenko: And, Mr Putin, we are not only launching nuclear power plants abroad. In fact, the main commissioning this year…

Vladimir Putin: Are you referring to the Kalinin nuclear power station?

Sergei Kiriyenko: …yes, the Kalinin nuclear power station in the Tver Region. We are right on schedule. The day before yesterday the station was brought to the minimum controlled reactor power. We’re done with the physical launch and are now advancing toward the energy launch scheduled to take place later this year. It’s extremely important to us, Mr Putin, not to let the increasingly high number of launches distract us from new contracts.

Following the Fukushima disaster, there was a risk of the global market collapsing. And competition on the electricity market became fiercer, as a result. But, importantly, the fears of market collapse and the severe competition have not prevented us from almost doubling the number of our foreign contracts.

By the end of last year, we had signed deals for 12 reactors. After one of them, at [Iran’s] Bushehr, was put into operation, there remained 11. As of now, we have deals for 21 reactors, twice as many as a year ago. The newcomers include countries such as Vietnam. An intergovernmental agreement with Vietnam has already been prepared and almost all the necessary preparations have been made for signing a financial deal. The Finance Ministry has completed its bit.

We also have new contracts with Belarus and China. In the latter we have undertaken to build two reactors. At some point, the Chinese put their programme on hold, but then they said they would launch those reactors that they deemed reliable, and so our contract has come into force. Last week, we also signed a contract for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh –  yet another one-off project.

Once again, we’ve doubled the number of our contracts, with all of them drawn up as contracts with domestic enterprises.

As we reported earlier, as many as 97% of all the orders in mechanical engineering and equipment supply are placed in Russia for Russian-based construction and a mere 3% provide for the import of goods that are not produced locally.

Today, the number of contracts for Russian machinery manufacturers has exceeded 250 billion roubles, and this means new jobs.

It was also important for us to support our fuel suppliers’ contracts in the post-Fukushima period, when the number of new deals of this type dropped.

The Tenex company, which supplies enriched uranium, is expected to see record earnings this year – as much as 3.3 billion. Never before has it grossed so much.  I guess what happened was that the market fell, but the stiffer competition forced customer to look for more trustworthy suppliers. And in those circumstances, we managed to increase the number of deals concluded.

Vladimir Putin: Good. How do you go about building long-term relations with [foreign] partners? I’m referring above all to your strategic relations with partners from Germany and France.

Sergei Kiriyenko: We’re presently working in a whole variety of areas, Mr Putin. Unfortunately, Germany has chosen to put all its nuclear engineering projects on hold. Siemens, a law-abiding German company, has to comply with the German government’s decisions. And so, unfortunately, we can now cooperate with Siemens only in areas unrelated to nuclear power.

We continue cooperation in medical equipment, as well as in isotopes and rare earth elements. We’ve got some really exciting collaboration prospects. But they’ve moved away from nuclear engineering for now. And we have to replace this niche by developing cooperation with companies elsewhere.

Our cooperation is the most intensive with French groups, such as Alstom and Electricité de France (EDF). We’ve stepped it up further following your recent agreements with the French president. We’ve already launched a joint venture with Alstom, and together with this group we are now developing projects to be implemented not just in Russia or France, but also in third countries where we can work together.

Cooperation with EDF, a major European company, has also proved quite successful for us.

Also, we’ve concluded a partnership agreement with the British company Rolls Royce, The United Kingdom is currently implementing a rather large-scale [nuclear power] programme. Characteristically, they made a decision to launch it after the Fukushima disaster.

They had no programme until then, and now they’ve announced the construction of 16 to 18 nuclear reactors on their soil. Rolls Royce is a key British company, and we’ve concluded a partnership agreement with them, including, incidentally, for joint projects in third countries. It’s together with Rolls Royce that we’re going to bid on a contract with the Czech Republic.

Vladimir Putin: Okay, good. Thanks a lot. Mr Trutnev, the Federation Council has approved amendments to the Environmental Protection Law. What’s new there?

Yuri Trutnev: Yes, Mr Putin, this is the first of the six bills worked out by the government to improve the environmental situation in Russia. This bill is aimed primarily at raising the efficiency of state environmental monitoring. It brings together 14 existing subsystems scattered around different federal agencies. These are subsystems related to the monitoring of water reservoirs, air, radioactive contamination, wildlife, mineral resources, and so forth.

Vladimir Putin: We just spoke about the development of nuclear engineering. From this perspective, how would you assess the amendments to the Environmental Protection Law and related legislation as a whole?

Yuri Trutnev: We are working together, and we’ve brought our regulatory base in line with theirs. Our cooperation began on the grounds of the industrial and research group Taifun in Obninsk. As of this moment, we’ve unified some 1,500 points of radiation control of the Russian Meteorological Service and of Rosatom. We started the effort even before creating a regulatory framework, which is necessary to pave the way for a common foreign information centre that would hold the entire resource.

This will make it possible for us to raise the quality of our annual state reports on the environmental situation and, more importantly, to fulfil our constitutional duty to inform the public on environmental problems across the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Putin: Okay, thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to our agenda for today, I’d like to get back to one important issue we actively discussed at the previous Government Presidium meeting. As you know, as a result of those discussions, a resolution was adopted bringing dramatic changes to electricity distribution. We’ve agreed to push for more such changes, primarily to benefit the consumer.

Let me outline the situation briefly for you.

First of all, penalties for electricity underuse are now  to be scrapped. This issue is a particularly sensitive one to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as to agrarian enterprises. It is from them that we most often hear legitimate complaints about the take-or-pay principle. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that this principle has been holding back entrepreneurial activity in electrical engineering and other industries while also bringing undeservedly high proceeds to distribution companies.

This issue has now been resolved, and consumers will not have to pay for electricity that they don’t use. Small and medium-sized businesses will be given an opportunity to build their work, including in electricity consumption, on a long-term basis and without having to bear the burden of additional costs. We’re talking here primarily about small and medium-sized businesses, which would have concluded contracts for the supply of up to 750 kWt/hr of electrical power.

Second, electricity suppliers have been obligated to switch over to some new, transparent standards for the disclosure of data concerning their day-to-day and operational activities, their spending priorities and pricing principles.

Such changes will add objectivity to the mechanism of calculating prices and production capacities on the wholesale and retail markets. Most importantly, they will enable any interested consumer to check on the Internet, in real-time, if the fee charged by a supplier is adequate or whether there are some unjustified surcharges set to gain surplus profits.

I’d like to point out that instructions have been issued to analyse distributors’ actual performance as well as the fairness of prices set by them for various consumer groups and in various regions of the Russian Federation.

Let me remind you that the work is to be completed before December 20. I’m asking the Energy Ministry, deputy prime ministers, and many other officials concerned to make sure they don’t overlook this. And I’m asking the government staff to see to it that the job is done by the December 20 deadline.

Third, we’ve agreed that beginning April 1, 2012, the price of electricity will be reduced for companies charged on one- and two-rate schemes.

This is what we are trying to achieve by introducing new settlement procedures, which will move us away from the categorisation of consumers depending on the amount of kWt/hours they use and will, consequently, prevent manipulation on the differences in time metering on the wholesale and the retail markets.

Let me emphasise once again that all the measures we’re taking are aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses and removing technological barriers to the nation’s economic growth.

Having that in mind, we shouldn’t forget about the need to advance electricity distribution and ensure the efficient and reliable operation of the sector as a whole.

To be able to meet that need, we should above all improve the fiscal discipline on the retail market. But I think the discipline is bound to improve when the pricing principles become fairer. We need to promote competition among distribution companies, encouraging them to vie for consumers. More transparent rules of work and adequate pricing will mark one more step in the right direction.

We are sure to meet the December 20 and the April 1 deadlines for the instructions issued, so please be ready. Distributors should always make appropriate preparations, I believe. And, as I said, their economic performance should be analysed competently, comprehensively and objectively.

Now let’s move on to our agenda.

The first item has to do with raising the efficiency of price regulation in housing and utilities services, a sector to which we have to attend on an almost daily basis.

Effective laws determine procedures for interactions between regional and local authorities in regulating the prices of housing and utilities services. Regional authorities can timely receive all relevant information on real prices and surcharges from municipalities and companies involved in the utilities sector. They can also check up on the legitimacy of the existing prices. I’d like to urge regional authorities to use this privilege more proactively. They should keep the situation in the housing and utilities sector under their permanent control, making sure that no utility company tries to line its pockets at the public’s expense.

As I said, procedures for that work are already established in laws, so there is no need to consolidate them in any departmental regulations, by the Federal Tariff Service or some other related agencies. We are to approve the corresponding regulations today.

Here’s one more topic to which I’d like to call your attention. The government attaches particular importance to the protection of labour in industry. We introduced a number of amendments into the Labour Code this past summer, and these amendments have helped us raise employer liability for non-compliance with labour rules. We’ve also adopted a range of practical measures to tackle long-standing problems in this area.

We’ll carry on with that work today. Among other things, we’re going to discuss the issue of vesting the Health and Social Development Ministry with additional powers in labour protection. It will be entitled to set rules for assessing professional risks behind a particular job, as well as to draw up standard lists of measures to improve working conditions and the safety of labour.

Please note that this work should be done in close cooperation with employers and trade unions, taking due account of their views.

The improvement of working conditions is a policy we are pursuing for our people’s sake. It’s aimed at raising the safety level, minimising industrial risks, and creating quality jobs, so feedback from trade unions and the business community is of special importance.

The government’s job will be to introduce such a system of assessing and managing professional risks that measures up to the highest international standards, those of the International Labour Organisation and of major European nations. And, of course, it’s essential to ensure the efficient, targeted use of funds allocated for labour protection.