Rustam Minnikhanov takes part in Russian State Council Presidium meeting on the development of the Russian Far East

On September 6, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov paid a working visit to Vladivostok to take part in a presidium meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the State Council of the Russian Federation on the comprehensive socio-economic development of the Russian Far East.

Opening the meeting, Putin noted that measures aimed to develop the Far Eastern regions have been implemented for several years and have produced the first results. For example, industrial growth rates are higher in this macro-region than the country’s average. The past three years were far from simple for the country, yet the average growth rate is 8.6 per cent. The outflow of people has also significantly reduced.

“Our main task is to increase the attractiveness of the Far East. This means decent housing, quality healthcare, transport accessibility, modern schools, kindergartens and day nurseries. In short, it is necessary to create conditions so that more hardworking, talented and educated people will come here,” the President said.

At the same time, Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the absence of Far Eastern chapters within the key state programmes. “I saw a report on the implementation of this decision. It provided a ranking of state programmes in terms of their contribution to the development of the Far East. I have to say that in a number of areas the situation is modest, to put it mildly, if not outright dismaying.  Instead of creating special sections on the Far East within the programmes, they either failed to mention it or lack substance,” Putin stressed.

Addressing members of the Russian Government, he said that “appropriate measures will be taken against those who fail to deliver instructions”.

Putin asked the meeting to pay special attention to issues of support for representatives of business structures.  According to him, in the next three years, all Far Eastern regions should be in the top half of the national ranking of regions in terms of their business climate. The president also touched upon the issue of the control of the businesses by supervisory authorities and asked agencies in charge to put things in order in terms of oversight.

Putin continued to talk about transport problems in the macro-region. The logistics infrastructure of the Far East is a key area in the development of Russia's transport system and international transport corridors, he said.

"Aviation is crucially important in the Far East. We launched a programme of subsidised flights here in 2010. Over the past eight years, the number of subsidised flights has nearly tripled. But this year problems with buying subsidized tickets were reported,” Putin said and gave an errand to the Transport Ministry to report on what they plan to do about this situation.

The President added that the implementation of the key infrastructure projects, including the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur mainlines and the development of large sea ports and airports is of great importance in the development of the transport infrastructure in the region.