Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:

Hello, everyone whom I am seeing for the first time in the government building. Today I would like us to discuss the current situation, plans for implementing a number of very important directives which have been issued over the past few months, including some I laid out for the government in my previous capacity. They mostly concern Open Government format issues, such as developing competition, improving legislation on state services as well as the use of state service institutions, the fight against corruption and several other very important issues.

Other directives are incorporated in the Presidential Executive Orders signed on May 7. Both sets of directives are related and aimed at achieving vital goals in the most sensitive areas of life. These directives imply a very fast pace for the government. We have little time to prepare for them – and we must implement them despite this distracting period of forming new federal executive bodies. We have to start today.  

I want to say that not only members of the government and the heads of the federal agencies, but the entire expert community must contribute to our efforts to implement these directives and executive orders. In fact, this is why the Open Government format was established.

But before that we talk about the issues concerned with the implementation of these instructions, I would like to speak about a question that needs urgent attention, that is, ensuring benefits, including the one-time payments in connection with the 67^th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. I met with some war veterans in Tambov yesterday. They are waiting for the promised allocations of 5,000 and 1,000 roubles. All of the citizens included in the Executive Order must receive these funds without delay, in May or June of this year. I signed a government resolution on this issue, so you can get started on it.

The second area concerns the implementation of our long-term economic policy. I think that by now you know the target figures by heart; they are very ambitious. We must now focus on strategic planning, so as to prepare and approve the guidelines for the government’s operation until 2018 and the socioeconomic development forecast to 2030 by December 1 this year. We will need to fulfil a number of tasks this year; they are concerned with the improvement of the budget and tax policy, the privatisation of state property and the general improvement of state property management (we must restore order in this sphere at long last), as well as the creation of a friendly environment for business. We must also prepare proposals on accelerating the socioeconomic development of two key regions – Siberia and the Far East. All of this will be reflected in the system of authority and the organisational structure of the government which I am preparing to submit to the president.

The third issue concerns the implementation of our social policy. The government has been set very complicated and ambitious tasks for the development of the labour market, the modernisation of the pension system, the improvement of the education and healthcare systems, the affordability of housing and raising the quality of housing and utility services. We should also focus on measures to support science and culture and to improve specific demographic statistics. Ethnic accord is one more vital issue. We need to plan a set of measures aimed at preventing ethnic conflict and to take a number of decisions to facilitate the adaptation of labour immigrants.

The fourth issue deals with the system of state governance, which we have discussed many times (including with this audience) and which also concerns information disclosure. Enactments have been drafted and discussed publicly on the Open Government format. We should use the results of these efforts in the new government and also approve a number of new initiatives, which stipulate conditions for the open presentation of proposals by the public.

We need new approaches to establishing public councils at government agencies which will require the involvement of public chambers. It will be important to list the bills subject to compulsory consideration by these councils before they are adopted. I mentioned this some time ago. It’s no secret that until recently these councils were established at federal agencies as a mere formality, just to have something to show to the public. No truly active participants were seen at any of them.

I said during the meeting with the Open Government working group that we need some “trouble makers” in these public councils to make these agencies and federal bodies less comfortable. They should be consistent and offer constructive criticism of the proceedings. Only in this way can we achieve real results and be effective. I have instructed Igor Shuvalov to draft proposals on increasing the role of public councils and expanding their authority to assess the work of federal agencies and their regional branches. The public councils’ opinion will certainly be taken into account when evaluating the performance of agency leaders. I am also asking for proposals on some key indicators of effective performance of federal agencies.

Today we will also discuss our immediate plans in military development and the improvement of military service. These tasks are also difficult, with many implications, requiring our undivided attention. We will discuss this too. On the whole, I would like Mr Shuvalov to be the general coordinator of this work; I ask him to hold a series of conferences after this meeting with our colleagues present here – deputy prime ministers, government ministers and all those involved in this work. Thank you. Let’s begin.