Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Betin, I have looked over the figures for the Tambov Region. Very good. Industrial production in your region grew at a rate three times higher than the country’s average.

Oleg Betin: Mr Putin, you’ve set a goal to increase the economic potential. Investments have grown by over 20%, which has allowed us to increase production volumes.

Vladimir Putin: I see that processing companies make up 83% in the overall industrial structure.

Oleg Betin: Yes, Mr Putin… These are the results (shows the materials)… We have put special emphasis on the agro-industrial complex, which has enjoyed 40% growth. This growth was achieved by focusing on processing and animal husbandry. There was essentially no processing industry in the region – it was obsolete and had to be reequipped from the ground up.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but cattle numbers dropped…

Oleg Betin: Mr Putin, we haven’t dealt with this issue yet, we haven’t commissioned the facilities.  They have been built but the cattle have not been provided thus far.

Vladimir Putin: They haven’t been supplied yet?

Oleg Betin: We have been engaged in other, rapid-growth fields, like pig breeding and poultry farming. Dairy complexes have been built, but they will be filled and will start working this year.

Vladimir Putin: Housing has also seen growth, I see.

Oleg Betin: Mr Putin, we’ve been constructing housing at a steady rate. As for the regional centre, for the fourth year in a row we will have one square metre per person. There were problems in farming areas and small cities and with increasing purchasing power. When we tried to simply build housing (development platforms) in farming areas, we experienced problems, because there are few young people, and people don’t have money to buy the housing. But when we started building new industrial facilities, the workforce began to grow and these processes intensified. That’s why the situation is so stable. The goal that we set, there is an increase…

Vladimir Putin: What about the progress made in the spheres of education and medicine?

Oleg Betin: Mr Putin, we were included in all education programmes and received major state support.

Vladimir Putin: How much?

Oleg Betin: For this period we received 1.2 billion roubles to modernise education. We took part in all programmes. We changed the management system, and more than 5,000 employees of maintenance staff were made non-staff employees, so that teachers will get higher salaries. We have provided a 30% raise in wages and brought them up to the average for our economy.  Now we need to increase wages of public sector workers.

Vladimir Putin: How much did you increase the wages of school teachers?

Oleg Betin: By 30%, and I will show you now…

Vladimir Putin: Good. Don’t forget about preschool education…

Oleg Betin: Wages are low. We have decided to increase the wages of preschool educators by 30% beginning January 1.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Oleg Betin: As for culture, we have grants for regional professional groups…

Vladimir Putin: Teacher wages at schools and special schools need to be increased.

Oleg Betin: We have equated them with schools. There aren’t many of them, that’s why… Mostly we have preschool educators, and they were financed via municipalities. There was a very complicated chain there: we needed to oversee it to ensure that the money reached them. But in general we are fulfilling the task you set.

Vladimir Putin: Good. And how much money did you get to modernise medical institutions?

Oleg Betin: We received 1.4 billion roubles this year.

Vladimir Putin: And how many facilities do you have?

Oleg Betin: In total there are 73 facilities. There were 42 for this year, but we have already renovated 53. We will disburse the funds and there will be large facilities remaining. But there is one, a new construction, which was not covered by the programme. We have been working on it for several years. This is a surgery centre of a regional children’s hospital. We were not included in the programme to build perinatal centres, and there is no such federal targeted programme here, and that’s why I wanted to ask… We are working with the Healthcare Ministry today, we have completed the project. And if we are included in the programme via the Federal Targeted Investment Programme, we will commission the centre and will develop this field, especially children’s healthcare.

Vladimir Putin: Good.