Prime Minister Putin's introductory remarks:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
Today we will continue to review the government's oversight policies and evaluate the situation in the construction industry.
Frankly speaking, most of the complaints about oversight are directed at this sector of the economy. Projects that could be approved in months become stuck in bureaucratic limbo for years.
For example, research done by the World Bank shows that administrative procedures can delay a construction project by almost two years in some Russian regions, even if all land issues have been settled.
In comparison, it takes less than six months and just a few procedures to accomplish this process in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
One gets the impression that builders have to know how to haggle with the government primarily, with actual construction taking a backseat. Why bother improving quality, introducing new technology, and increasing efficiency if shady connections are the only thing that matters?
You probably know that if you talk with builders in any region, you'll hear complaints about redundant administrative procedures and oversight functions, which do nothing to improve the quality of the work.
It's true that we have taken positive steps in this industry over the past few years. For example, housing construction has reached 60 million square metres per year. This is a good figure. However, it is mainly the result of day-to-day "manual control". Unfortunately, no effective model has been created yet to regulate the construction industry automatically, even though a lot of good and necessary changes have been made to the relevant legislation recently. I am referring to the Land Code and the Urban Development Code, which were purged of most administrative barriers.
However, experience shows that it's not enough to change a law. It is necessary to learn to administer and enforce the law accurately and effectively.
As before, all manner of pretexts are used to illegitimately interfere in construction. Extra licensing procedures are introduced, even if they are not required by federal law or blatantly violate it at times.
Most of the violations in construction are related to oversight, government expert evaluations, and licensing. The situation is not much better in the provision of land for construction and connecting construction sites to utility infrastructure.
That being said, some places, including the Rostov Region, the Perm Territory and the Republic of Tatarstan, do have a well-managed system for overseeing the enforcement of federal laws. They provide land and issue construction licenses in a transparent and easy manner. In any case, investors find the situation acceptable.
However, in most regions, including the Primorye Territory, Moscow, the Republic of Mordovia and the Saratov Region, little to nothing has been done to eliminate illegal administrative barriers.
In my opinion, we need to make sure that the urban development plans of local and regional authorities and affiliated organisations comply with the law.
A corresponding request will be filed with prosecution authorities in the near future.
And one more thing. It is my firm belief that it is the responsibility of regional leaders to create favourable conditions for investments in construction. They must ensure businesslike interactions with municipalities and representatives of the federal government in the regions, and respond to all violations no matter who commits them.
The government will focus on this issue. Soon we will hear the reports from regional leaders on the situation in the construction industry. All leaders must prepare a report.
Moving on. There are a lot of problems at the federal level as well.
First, we must simplify the requirements for urban planning documentation, which will allow us to adopt necessary acts more quickly and make administrative procedures more cost-effective.
Second, we should carefully consider ways to reform the system of expert evaluation of design documentation. We must end the artificial monopoly in this area and significantly reduce the costs that site developers incur. We are the ones who created this situation a while back. There are obvious problems here, which must be resolved. Experts must actually be held accountable for the quality of their work.
We must also limit the number of cases in which expert evaluations and cost estimates are done at the federal level.
Next, we must move government services online as soon as possible, which we have talked about repeatedly.
If all documents are submitted over the Internet and customers are able to monitor document processing online, there will be no opportunities for violations or procrastination. At least there will be less procrastination.
Fourth, the Ministry of Regional Development must provide assistance to regional governments and municipalities on urban planning issues. They must create standard documents and forms and ensure that best practices are shared, which some of the regions already do, as I noted.
And finally, when we talk about construction, we are usually talking about housing construction. This is our top priority.
But the same problems exist for industrial construction projects. In fact, the problems are greater at times.
The endless delays and the unscrupulous officials who siphon off money from investors undermine our efforts to modernise the Russian economy.
Regional leaders must exercise personal control over critical investment projects in their regions. We will provide the necessary assistance to them when needed.
Regions must have the opportunity to make use of wasteland and land that is used inefficiently. If necessary, we can delegate additional authorities to regional governments to carry out this work.
We must allot land for the purposes of comprehensive development and industrial construction. We must simplify the permit process as much as possible and create the conditions necessary for effective work. I am referring to infrastructure, including roads, energy supply and so on.
We have experience creating such industrial zones. I've spoken on this issue repeatedly. I have visited them with many of you to take a look at operations there. They work pretty well. These are the industrial zones in the Kaluga Region, St Petersburg and Tatarstan, as well as several other regions. We must step up our work on this issue in all regions.
Let's get to work.