Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Shuvalov, in line with a law adopted last spring it is the Government's responsibility to report to the country's Parliament, the State Duma, on the effectiveness of its anti-crisis measures.
As head of the relevant commission, you will be speaking in Parliament. I have talked to the House Speaker and discussed with him the issues to be tackled in your presentation. Now I would like to talk about it with you.
Igor Shuvalov: Mr Prime Minister, we are going to the State Duma right after this meeting - me, other Government members and Bank of Russia executives - to report on our performance in the first six months of 2009 in accordance with the Anti-Crisis Plan.
We have discussed this plan with the parliament members upon your instruction. Shortly after that, in April, the plan was approved by the Duma along with the federal budget. Now we need to talk about what has been happening with the country's economy over the past eight months, or, formally, the first six months of the year. We need to discuss social challenges we are facing, our achievements and goals for the next few months. We still have time before the end of the year to remedy the situation in several sectors of the economy.
As you know - we have reported on it to you - the situation in industry is changing. Some sectors are seeing a revival and even some growth. However, other sectors, such as the auto industry, are still posting downward statistics. But, with all the planned anti-crisis measures, we have fairly encouraging forecasts for the remaining months of 2009.
The Government is currently working, upon your instruction, on anti-crisis measures for 2010. After preliminary consultations with official concerned, including parliament members, we will be ready to submit to you our 2010 plan in a few weeks.
Vladimir Putin: We both know how important it is to respond promptly to the arising challenges. We have been successfully doing so this year, also with valuable support from the State Duma, as some of our actions would have been impossible without relevant laws. These laws were passed very promptly.
To continue this productive cooperation with the Parliament, it is important that the lower house members have a clear idea of how effective our policies are. They should also be informed as early as possible on our next steps in order to plan our cooperative work until the end of this year, and make important decisions for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 planning periods and for the next federal budget.
Igor Shuvalov: Mr Putin, if you give me your go-ahead, I will inform the Parliament that on the whole, despite some minor difficulties and delays, we have been successful in implementing the anti-crisis plan. Given the latest data suggesting that we are now past the worst period and the recent industrial growth signs, we can assume that the anti-crisis plan is working. In fact, it was essentially about preventing a steep decline and bringing about growth.
Vladimir Putin: Good. However, with all the natural optimism - and we certainly have good reason to be optimistic, we must bear in mind that global markets and global economy are still likely to follow a range of very different scenarios. We must be ready for all of them.