Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: What do you think about the area’s performance?
Natalia Komarova: Mr Putin, I would like to note that, if we assess the main indicators of the autonomous area’s 2011 socio-economic development, then they are all in the black.
Vladimir Putin: Are all of them in the black?
Natalia Komarova: The budget is.
Vladimir Putin: And what about industrial production?
Natalia Komarova: Industrial production also increased but, unfortunately, not as fast as in the country as a whole.
Vladimir Putin: How did it increase? To the best of my knowledge, it went down.
Natalia Komarova: By 0.6% -- the index …
Vladimir Putin: Is this the yearly index?
Natalia Komarova: … The industrial production index.
Vladimir Putin: No, what about the gross regional product?
Natalia Komarova: By 1.5%.
Vladimir Putin: It grew?
Natalia Komarova: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: According to my information, it declined.
Natalia Komarova: Our preliminary estimates show that it increased by 1.5%. This is not very impressive, and we are not happy about industrial growth rates.
Vladimir Putin: No, the 1% refers to the 2010 period.
Natalia Komarova: For the 2011 period.
Vladimir Putin: In 2011 it grew by 0.6%.
Natalia Komarova: Yes, yes. By 0.6%. Yes, yes, the growth rates are lower. You are right! Production volumes are higher, but growth rates are lower. Yes, this is true. Mr Putin, the reduction can be explained by a slump in crude oil production, and this affects industrial production volumes and the cost of the gross domestic product, of course. We did, however, post a budget surplus.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, I know. 24 billion, or is it more?
Natalia Komarova: I would say 12 billion. Our calculating methods are somewhat different. This makes up for 24 billion on the initial plan.
Vladimir Putin: And the Finance Ministry believes it is higher.
Natalia Komarova: Yes, compared to the original plan it is. But we adjusted it throughout the year. Compared to the adjusted plan, it turns out that we have exceeded the consolidated budget by 0.5%, and the area budget by 0.7%. This is still an impressive figure. We have a 12 billion rouble budget surplus.
Vladimir Putin: Is everything all right inside the social sectors? Are your teachers already receiving salaries higher than the average for the economy overall?
Natalia Komarova: Almost. They're higher than in 2010. But according to the estimates for 2011 we just failed to reach our targets. In the economy as a whole it's 49,000 roubles.
Vladimir Putin: And it's 43,000 roubles in your area, right?
Natalia Komarova: 46,000.
Vladimir Putin: Teachers get 46,000 roubles?
Natalia Komarova: Yes. Teachers get 46,000 roubles, and the average salary for the economy overall is 49,000 roubles. Doctors get considerably more.
Vladimir Putin: How much?
Natalia Komarova: Over 56,000. Consequently, I would like to note that we have decided to index salaries in 2012, as well. Thank God, overall incomes in the economic sector have risen. It therefore turns out that we must adjust our plans for teachers, childcare workers and health professionals and index salaries, so that we keep pace with the overall economic average wage. We are currently returned to our decisions on the new pay system. On the one hand, given your remark about the ever-widening gap between the maximum and minimum salaries of teachers, doctors and childcare workers, it seems this is exactly what we had in mind when we made our decision on the new pay system. The greater the contribution, the higher the salary. On the other hand, as it turned out, the gap between minimum and maximum pay levels really did become too big. That’s why we are reconsidering these decisions and modifying them. We are converting to single-channel financing under the federal programme to modernise the healthcare sector. We will not complete the switchover in 2012 because our system has very specific requirements. We are gradually phasing in specific measures in stages, in order to minimise the impact and not wreck the system. We will convert to 100% single-channel financing by 2013. This is an extremely important figure because people's real incomes in our area fell during 2010.
Vladimir Putin: In 2010?
Natalia Komarova: Yes, in 2010. Therefore, according to the estimates for 2011, we are expecting to finish the year on 100% compared with 2010, in other words no decline compared with 2010.
Vladimir Putin: In reality, this is not very good ...
Natalia Komarova: Not very good …
Vladimir Putin: … If there was a fall in 2010.
Natalia Komarova: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: It is not very good if no growth was posted throughout 2011 compared to 2010.
Natalia Komarova: Compared with 2010 there is growth, but the thing is that … Please look how this works out. Our real disposable incomes in 2010 were 90.6% and in 2011 100%.
Vladimir Putin: So there was growth?
Natalia Komarova: Yes, there was.
Vladimir Putin: Salaries have gone up a little.
Natalia Komarova: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: By 2.5%.
Natalia Komarova: Yes. Real pensions have also increased.
Vladimir Putin: But by over 3%, rather than by 2%.
Natalia Komarova: Over the course of several years we simply didn't make any decisions on raising public sector wages. The last decision was made in February 2008. There were no wage increases at all in 2009. We subsequently raised public sector salaries from December 1, 2010, January 1, 2011 and September 1, 2011. And this made it possible to …
Vladimir Putin: To raise the bar a little.
Natalia Komarova: To raise the bar. It is nonetheless a benchmark because this is a sensitive issue, without doubt.
Vladimir Putin: It was also hard to do this in during a crisis.
Natalia Komarova: Very difficult, very difficult. The unemployment level. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we are making extensive use of federal opportunities, and regional unemployment is continuing to decline steadily. This is a positive trend. The federal programmes have done a good job. Having substantial administrative experience in the municipal and state sphere, I would like to say that these programmes are very effective. We have also posted an increase in fixed capital investment. The volume of construction work … At our previous meeting, you noted that we had built far fewer apartment buildings. We had built just over 520,000 square metres of housing in 2010. We built an estimated 750,000 sq. m. of housing throughout 2011. I hope there will be more…
Vladimir Putin: Do you mean an expansion?
Natalia Komarova: Yes, this is what we should be striving for, because we have discussed with the Ministry of Regional Development the need for a further one million square metres every year. And the problem is extremely serious because there are a lot of people waiting to be rehoused, we have a lot of rundown and dilapidated housing.
Vladimir Putin: How much dilapidated housing do you have?
Natalia Komarova: Two million sq. m. This was the figure registered on January 1, 2010.
Vladimir Putin: That much?
Natalia Komarova: Two million sq. m.
Vladimir Putin: This is such a wealthy region, and you have so much dilapidated housing stock. You must rehouse the tenants.
Natalia Komarova: Yes, we must rehome 50,000 tenants, plus people from 10,000 trailers.
Vladimir Putin: Trailers are a totally unregistered element.
Natalia Komarova: This is what remains unregistered to date. The joint efforts of Dmitry Medvedev and our political will, as well as your assistance, have contributed to resolving this issue. We have shown political will, we have introduced the relevant terminology into legislation, which gives us the right to specify what is needed for such housing. We have started with people who moved in before January 1, 1995.
Vladimir Putin: You know, your region is not the only one with such people, those who are not covered by any of the programmes. They have to be incorporated into these programmes again.
Natalia Komarova: In 2011 we reinstated them, they are here in our documents. For justice sake I would like to say that, unfortunately, the programme did not go exactly to plan, but I think that we will be relocating several dozen families this year, and people will receive subsidies. We are therefore making adjustments to the programme. We are tackling the problem from the other side. Municipal governments decide to tear down trailer towns. You see, most of them …
Vladimir Putin: … Were established as enterprises.
Natalia Komarova: Yes, they were established as enterprises.
Vladimir Putin: You have decent enough salaries, you must find some sort of co-financing options.
Natalia Komarova: We are subsidising. We issue subsidies plus subsidised mortgages. We will compensate …
Vladimir Putin: What is your share?
Natalia Komarova: Up to 7%.
Vladimir Putin: OK.