Events

 
 
 

Dmitry Medvedev presents state awards to workers in agriculture and related industries

 
 
 

An official awards ceremony was held in a pavilion at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre which is now hosting the Golden Autumn 2012 exhibition.

Twenty-four people working in agriculture from various regions of the country received state awards from the Prime Minister.

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Dmitry Medvedev’s speech at the ceremony:

Dear friends, I would like to greet you all here at the exhibition on the eve of your professional holiday. I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to you, all rural workers and all workers of the processing industry. A year has passed, and I would like to thank you for your difficult work, for your dedication and for your  good results.

The end of the agricultural season has always been a holiday for rural residents, and a time for summing up results. Naturally, we sum up these results as well. I will not waste your time by listing statistics that you already know. Indeed, the year was rather difficult, but of course, all things are relative. As a result of the drought, some regional harvests have not met our expectations, and fall short of 2011 volumes. Nevertheless, the harvest exceeds our entire domestic demand and even makes it possible to continue grain exports, with due consideration for surplus grain stocks. Nonetheless, our entire spring crop area has expanded. Meat production has also increased by virtually 8% over nine months. This is quite good. Poultry output has soared by an impressive 15%, and pork production has grown by 7%. In effect, the situation in the livestock-breeding sector is quite good.

Frankly speaking, I am quite impressed by your achievements. Actually, it is always more pleasant to visit an agrarian exhibition than any other kind of exhibition. This kind of exhibition always evokes the warmest emotions when you walk around and you can see lots of animals and smiles all around and food on the counters. This was all produced thanks to painstaking work by a lot of people, and this creates very good emotions.

I can say that the exhibition is really good, and this is our main exhibition. It was established back in Soviet times. They have just shown me an album from 1939. At that time, it was customary to mention and honour all workers who had achieved good results. Since 1939, these books have recorded all front-rank workers. And I believe that this is a completely normal tradition. We should not renounce it, and we will probably continue this tradition online.

The number of exhibition participants continues to increase. This year’s exhibition involves about 2,000 participants from 61 Russian regions. And the number of foreign participants has hit an all-time high. The projects are quite good. I have just assessed some of them. Of course, this includes major projects, which are very important for the development of agriculture. I am talking about agrarian mega-complexes and small-scale projects. For instance, they have shown me these small, but modern and high-tech, farm-level production facilities. Let’s hope that they will also develop successfully.

Naturally, we will continue to support agriculture. And this is the most important thing that I would like to mention right now. All talk that such support has been curtailed, or that we don’t have enough funding for this purpose, is nonsense. The budget stipulates enough allocations to support the countryside. We will find additional resources in the event of shortages only because we have now entered a rather difficult economic-development phase in which our old-time regulations remain in force, and we also have to abide by World Trade Organisation regulations. As you know, new industry support measures include payments per hectare of croplands, subsidies per kilogramme of marketed commercial milk, measures to renew farming machinery, and some others. And we will continue to implement these measures. And, of course, this includes specific decisions on reducing the tax burden. These decisions will not be revised. Overall tax breaks are worth about 18 billion roubles. This sum total consists only of rural tax breaks, including zero profit-tax rates.

Nevertheless, we have to monitor the situation. I would like to emphasise once again that the Government will not abandon the countryside. We will monitor the situation, and we will assess domestic and global-market developments, because global markets also continue to expand. We will adopt specific decisions. If necessary, we will also make selective decisions, like the ones adopted this year because of the drought.

The social development of the countryside is a highly important issue. Over the past four years, from 2008 to 2012, 170 billion roubles were spent for these purposes from all sources of funding. This made it possible to create new jobs. But, most importantly, 80,000 households have improved their living conditions. Modern schools and cultural facilities are being built. Paramedic-obstetric stations are also being constructed. In my opinion, this last aspect is even more important for the countryside. However, the nationwide situation differs from region to region. Naturally, every region should continue to implement its own support programme.

It is very important that young people remain in the countryside. We have been trying to accomplish this objective for the past seven years or so, since the agricultural programme was launched. To be honest, we have achieved certain successes, although not in every rural area. The situation depends on the extent to which regional and municipal leaders or farm managers address the issue of providing young people with jobs and housing. We envision federal subsidies for these purposes and state funding in line with the Agricultural Development programme until 2020.

I would once again like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart and to say that there are people present in this auditorium who have been nominated for state awards for their exceptional work, and whose experience, professionalism and diligence have received special acclaim in Russia. I would like to cordially congratulate you for this, and I suggest that we move on to the awards ceremony.

Адрес страницы в сети интернет: http://archive.government.ru/eng/docs/21123/