“On the whole, an analysis of the situation in Russia's regions has shown once again that we have managed to maintain key positive trends in the country's development despite the difficulties caused by the crisis. Death rates are continuing to decline in the overwhelming majority of regions. There are more births, and life expectancy is growing. It has reached 69 years now. Many regions have succeeded in raising real wages, reducing poverty and curbing unemployment. The number of people working in small and medium-size businesses has for the first time exceeded 25% of the total economically active population. This is a very good sign, in my opinion.”
“We see the advancement of the fishing industry as one of our key priorities. Despite the federal budget limits, we've decided to maintain spending on the federal targeted programme in the industry at the original level (over 32 billion roubles) and to extend (the programme) for one more year, through 2014. As you know, we subsidize loans taken out by enterprises to build and upgrade vessels as well as to develop processing and storage infrastructure for the fishing industry. Funds are also being spent to set up special fish markets in Russian regions. By the way, it would be interesting to hear from you today about where the first such markets are going to appear. The industry's top management has its own plans for this.”
“We are finishing the highway from Chita to Khabarovsk. In fact, this is an historic event for Russia. Russia has never been entirely connected by road through its territories. Until recently - 100 years ago, or how many, up until 1903? - in order to travel from European Russia to the Far East, people either travelled on the winter road in winter or on ships across the Indian Ocean. A railway was built by 1904, and this was because of an impending war with Japan. In Soviet times, another branch of this railroad was built as a result of deteriorating relations with China. And there was no highway at all. And now we are completing 2,500 km between Chita and Khabarovsk. And for the first time in history, Russia will be connected by roads throughout its territory - you'll be able to drive from its westernmost to its easternmost point.”
“I have to mention another serious problem - bloated regional and municipal administrative staffs and the extravagant costs associated with maintaining them. A majority of last year's regional anti-crisis plans envisaged administrative optimisation. All told, the regional administrative staff has been reduced by 4% and municipal staff by 2.5%. It is the right thing to do, but it is proceeding at a snail's pace. It is worth noting that spending on staff increased by 6% though staff size decreased. Please take note of this. The reduction was 4% while costs rose by 6%, and inefficient spending on public management totalled 83 billion roubles. I think that the work to make the managerial staff smaller and more efficient, and to optimise its costs, should go on.”
“On the whole, an analysis of the situation in Russia's regions has shown once again that we have managed to maintain key positive trends in the country's development despite the difficulties caused by the crisis. Death rates are continuing to decline in the overwhelming majority of regions. There are more births, and life expectancy is growing. It has reached 69 years now. Many regions have succeeded in raising real wages, reducing poverty and curbing unemployment. The number of people working in small and medium-size businesses has for the first time exceeded 25% of the total economically active population. This is a very good sign, in my opinion.”
“We have developed a sufficiently effective mechanism for interacting with the party as a whole, with the party's leadership. Now, as you know, we hold a party conference practically every quarter and will do this in all federal districts. These are like mini party congresses. My current status in relation to the United Russia party in no way limits my opportunities to influence what the party does and in no way limits the party's influence on the government's decision-making, because we have developed very close ties, particularly on preparing the next three-year budget, for 2011 and the following two years, 2012-2013. This is very professional, very tough and very nerve-wracking work on distributing resources across various sectors. And, of course, we cannot do this in isolation from the deputies of the leading party, the leading faction in the State Duma, United Russia.”
“But we should take the legitimate interests of our partners into account. I think we do. We reached agreement with our colleagues, including colleagues from Belarus, and signed a contract in 2007. And we are not asking for anything on top of that, beyond what the contract stipulates. The only thing we ask for is to observe the agreements we signed. Nothing else. Now when they tell us: allow us to pay less this year and double the amount the next, we agree. The next year they tell us: no, let is leave things as they were the year before last. Even in this case we try to reach a sort of consensus, to agree on some details, to ease the transition to market terms. And it seems to me the polemics, however sharp, between Belarusian and Russian energy experts has finally led to agreement.”
“It's easy to understand the desire of local governments to set the land taxes as high as possible, because the proceeds go to the municipal budget. However, this all too often increases the tax burden on businesses and hampers long-term investment projects. Thus, local governments gain a rouble today to lose dozens or perhaps even hundreds of thousand roubles tomorrow as they rob themselves of potential tax revenues. So I call on our colleagues to be more flexible about land taxation, lower rates to support social projects, small and medium-size business initiatives and innovative industries.”
“Despite a decline in 2009, trade between our two countries has returned to pre-crisis levels. There has been progress in many sectors, particularly in high-tech industries such as aircraft manufacturing and space. We have seen good results in the An-70 aircraft project, which we also discussed in detail with Ukraine's previous government and president. But now we hope to start up joint work on the An-148 aircraft project, as well as on projects to build engines for other airplanes and helicopters. A large percentage of the Russian helicopter fleet is powered by Ukrainian-made engines. Our work together in space holds also great promise.”
"I am convinced that the Russian steel industry has everything it needs to become one of the world leaders in effective production and management, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness quite soon… Much remains to be done. You know it better than anyone else, because your production facility still lags behind its competitors in labour efficiency and consumes 15% to 20% more electricity. All this, of course, is a legacy of the past, a legacy that is difficult to get rid of. You can't undo everything in one fell swoop, but we are moving in the right direction. We need to start manufacturing the products where we still rely on imports."
