Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: We have already discussed a broad rage of industrial issues, and covered nearly all the industries. Now what do you think are the key social problems in Sakha?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: I think the biggest social problem for us is the huge numbers of dilapidated residential buildings that are dangerous to live in. We have been trying to build as much new housing as we can in the past few years.

On the whole Yakutia is a leader in Russia's Far East by many criteria. One of them is the per capita amount of newly-commissioned housing. But the problem persists, because even so, we commission less housing than we write off. Fast amortisation of housing is the result of local geology and climate. It is a typical feature of the Far North.

If you just look at the city out of the window, you will see old buildings which should have been pulled down long ago. They were built as temporary housing, but are still in use.

We have made some progress recently, also due to the support from the federal Government, the Housing and Utilities reform Fund and other specialised programmes. However, this problem Sakha is facing along with other northern and Far Eastern regions, is so enormous that we have to ask the Government to incorporate old housing in the Far East as a separate section into the Far Eastern Programme.

Vladimir Putin: How big were the federal allocations to Sakha? I mean in the previous years.

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: In 2006, for example, we received 10 million roubles from the federal budget.

Vladimir Putin: What about this year?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: This year, nearly one billion.

Vladimir Putin: That's progress. But the local Government needs to do more as well.

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: There are a lot of old school buildings, which were also built as temporary premises. Some of them are wooden.

We built 109 modern schools between 2002 and 2008. But we still have 52 that are dangerous to use. We commission 10 new schools every year and will continue to do so. But this is not easy. In the past, we could count on federal allocations, and we did receive that support. Last year, we received 640 million roubles, which helped us to resolve the most pressing issues.

I am not saying that someone has to wave a magic wand and give us everything we need right now. But it is expedient that the Far Eastern Programme include this section.

Why am I talking about it? Because we have been focusing on industry, especially infrastructure and power generation. Also, much has been done to increase living standards - salaries and pensions. Especially with pensions, we have really made progress.

Vladimir Putin: Is the average monthly wage in Yaklutia about 24,000-25,000 roubles?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: Yes, but there is big difference across sectors.

Vladimir Putin: You mean 50,000-80,000 here in diamond mining, and nearly 100,000 in the oil industry?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: Right. In the oil industry they make 80,000 roubles, and even up to 100,000. In other sectors, salaries are much smaller, especially in rural areas. As for the budget-funded services and agencies, we have increased salaries there due to additional funding sources. Earlier we had direct "per capita" federal financing of such companies. Now there is a different arrangement where we stimulate the economy and improve labour productivity. This has enabled us to raise salaries. The national project has also helped a lot. I would say this is a very good idea.

Vladimir Putin: Now let us go into more detail on housing. And did you say you would be opening a new department at the Sakha University?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: Yes, I did.

Vladimir Putin: How many students will it have?

Vyacheslav Shtyrov: The Sakha State University is probably one of the largest institutions in the Russian Far East in terms of the number of students and faculty. It shares the first and second place in the region with the Far Eastern Technical University in Vladivostok. However, traditionally, our university makes more emphasis on humanities and trains teachers and doctors.

In the past few years, we have been focusing on comprehensive development of production personnel, which also involved creating new professions and specialisations, mainly in the sphere of technology.

Under this programme, we plan to build a second branch of the Yakutian University here in Mirny. It will train oil and gas and mining engineers.

We have seen the mine today. Soon we'll have about 1,000 students in the Mirny District. In addition to the University's growth, under a special programme, we also need more technical support staff, such as highly-qualified workers and foremen. Therefore, we are building five technical schools in the republic which will offer professional training to middle-school graduates - a mining school, a transport school, etc.