State Duma plenary meeting

RUSSIA, May 10 - Mikhail Mishustin spoke at a State Duma meeting and answered questions from representatives of parliamentary parties after the President nominated him for Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Mishustin’s remarks at a State Duma plenary meeting: 

Mr Volodin, State Duma deputies, colleagues.

Only recently, the Government reported on its performance in 2023 and the past four years in general as per the Constitution. Over this period, we have managed to significantly improve the performance of government bodies and coordination of the branches of power, at the federal and regional levels. By doing this, we have built a solid foundation for moving forward and achieving the national goals that the President approved in his Executive Order on his inauguration day, as well as improving the quality of life for our citizens, and shaping an updated architecture of the economy.

During the inauguration ceremony, the President stressed that “our state and socio-political system must be strong and resistant to any threats and challenges, ensuring the progressive and stable development, as well as the unity and independence of our country.”

I believe that the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly must serve as the basis for the Government’s work for the next six years. The address outlines the key priorities and a large-scale programme of socioeconomic development that we must implement together, esteemed deputies – certainly, in cooperation with the Federation Council, the Central Bank, the heads of regions and development institutions, as well as with the public organisations and associations willing to engage in the constructive work for the benefit of the country and our citizens.

We will be focusing on several priority domains to achieve that.

The first priority is developing and strengthening the economy. The second one is ensuring our technological sovereignty. The third one is digital transformation. The fourth priority is preserving the population and supporting families with children. The fifth domain is improving our citizens’ wealth. The sixth one is balancing the development of the regions and the nationwide infrastructure.

Now, allow me to elaborate.

First, the President set a serious goal: Russia must enter the four biggest economies in the world for purchasing-power parity by 2030.

This goal goes beyond increasing the gross output of goods and services. This growth must come with increasing the income standards – certainly, conditioned upon maintaining macroeconomic stability, ensuring our technological and financial sovereignty, and other important issues.

Essentially, it is necessary to unfold a new economic growth model, which the President recently discussed at a meeting with large businesses.

What is our plan of action?

Mainly, we plan to continue shaping the supply-side economy and create conditions for starting new companies. It is necessary to increase industrial production volumes by tens of percent.

These efforts will require additional investment. And we expect that not only the state but also responsible businesses will contribute, including by participating in building long-term resources on the domestic market.

We will also continue supporting the mechanism of project-based and equity financing, as well as improving the appeal of the Russian jurisdiction.

While building production volumes, it is important to remember that new goods need sales markets – not only in Russia but also abroad. We are to increase the exports of non-commodity non-energy products by at least two-thirds. We must increase agricultural exports by 50 percent, as instructed by the President.

I should emphasise that, despite the persisting pressure on our country, we do not plan to impose any restrictions on the foreign businesses that want to keep operating in Russia or plan to come to Russia with new projects. Neither do we intend to restrict opportunities for Russian companies on the international market in any way.

Of course, we prioritise creating favourable conditions for cooperation with friendly countries – within the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the Eurasian Economic Union, the CIS, the SCO and BRICS. We will be developing free-trade agreements with the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region, the Middle East and Africa, and expanding our industrial cooperation, cooperation in science and technology, and launching new joint economic and investment projects.

With this end in view, we will be strengthening transport and logistics infrastructure, including for expanding the transit of goods via international corridors.

It is important to increase labour productivity. The President particularly focused on this matter in his address. There is a dedicated national project currently in progress. We will continue to scale up successful practices and systems, reduce excessive requirements and, of course, support all constructive initiatives coming from businesses.

The SME sector plays a special role. As the President said, it is making an increasingly bigger contribution to the economic growth. The plan is to raise the income level for workers of small and medium-sized companies in the next six years. Income must grow faster than the economy in general. We plan to calibrate well-proven support measures and dedicate resources to developing infrastructure across the regions. Of course, we will stimulate small businesses to enter international markets, among other measures.

The second priority domain is building up our technological sovereignty and developing the production of goods and services that are unique for Russia. This domain is directly related to shaping the supply-side economy.

We are going to implement systemwide support measures across a broad range of products and develop a full cycle of domestic production for complex goods, from research and development to serial production, by using and expanding all the previously developed mechanisms and implementing new ones. They include mechanisms that are part of a cluster investment platform, the Industrial Development Fund, industrial mortgage and subsidies for research and advanced development. I must mention agreements on protecting and facilitating capital investment, and special investment contracts. Thanks to all these agreements, the gross added value of processing industries is expected to increase by 40 percent within six years, as the President instructed. This means thousands of modern production facilities and many new jobs.

Technological sovereignty projects will be launched to strengthen the stability of the entire Russian economy in the long term. The President described these projects in his address in detail. Each project is dedicated to manufacturing specific lines of high-tech goods based on our own developments, and providing guaranteed demand for critical technology and workforce. The share of Russian high-tech goods and services developed based on our own technology lines, is supposed to increase by 50 percent within six years.

Now, we are finishing the formative stage of these projects. Colleagues, the preliminary number is nine projects. They will concern radio electronics, machine engineering, medical equipment and technology, small-scale chemical production, unmanned aviation systems, space, atom, new energy technology and, most importantly, food security. Some other industries will be covered as well. This is a preliminary number.

Extremely difficult complex work is expected on these projects. It will require vast resources and coordinated efforts. Of course, we count on your overarching support. Implementing them will allow us to work towards reducing imports down to not more than 17 percent of the GDP, a goal set by the President.

We will continue developing cross-cutting and groundbreaking technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, communications, and many others.

What is extremely important, we will continue updating scientific infrastructure. The President instructed us to double accumulated investment by the state and businesses into research and development by 2030 – and reach the share of 2 percent of GDP. The allocated funds in the amount of more than 1.5 trillion roubles in the three-year budget provide the foundation for achieving this goal.

Third, digital transformation. Colleagues, no industry today can operate without specialised software. Having proprietary electronic platforms in the key sectors, public administration and modern Russian telecommunications infrastructure constitute mandatory conditions for achieving breakthrough results and ensuring the country’s security.

While dealing with this matter, the Government will concentrate its efforts as part of the new national projects on building the data economy, which we will launch at the President’s instruction. We will keep increasing investment into Russian IT solutions at the pace that is at least twice as high as the economic growth rate, in order to meet the demands of government agencies and companies. Certainly, we need a comprehensive approach to stimulating production and implementing advanced developments that encapsulates all stages, from training workforce and conducting research to releasing and testing prototypes, and increasing the demand for products and services. All these aspects will be taken into account in the new national project.

Colleagues,

A strong economy, technological sovereignty and the wide introduction of innovation will become a solid foundation for Russia’s development, improving the quality of life of people in each region, for further fulfilling our social obligations and, in general, for preserving the population, which is the fourth priority domain of the Government’s further work.

There are about 24.5 million families in Russia, raising a total of 30 million children, and their well-being is what matters most to us. An integrated system of state measures has been created to support a woman through her pregnancy and until her child reaches the age of 17.

About 3 trillion roubles were allocated to support families in this year’s federal budget that you helped draft.

It is essential that we combine our efforts to improve all social support programmes. We are planning to launch a new national project, Family, an umbrella system for all the most relevant social support mechanisms, which will make the support programmes more targeted and focused on large families. The most important programme is the maternity capital programme that has certainly proven effective. Following the President’s proposal, we will extend the programme until the end of the decade.

The past few years’ procedure has been very straightforward, with families receiving their maternity capital payment automatically once they have a child, without having to file an application. Clearly, parents have limited time for paperwork during this busy period in their lives. So, we have made the procedure as simple as possible. It is quick and does not involve collecting any documents or certificates. This procedure was established after the so-called social treasury principles were introduced under the President’s instruction, to ensure that state support is provided automatically or based on one application.

About 40 federal support measures have been transferred to this format – 42, to be exact. By the end of the year, we will extend it to the remaining measures. In 2025, we will focus on simplifying the procedure for obtaining regional benefits. We have started this work, and the Government recently approved uniform requirements for providing state support at all levels. In fact, we have established a general procedure for interaction between the authorities and citizens regardless of their place of residence, that is, extraterritorially.

I would like to emphasise that listening to people’s opinion and taking their feedback should be of utmost importance to us, as the President always underscores. We need to keep track of how clear and convenient the processes are and adjust them accordingly. At the same time, anyone who wants to apply for the necessary services personally, if they find this option preferable, should still have this option.

Colleagues, we do know that support for families cannot be limited to cash payments and benefits. The Government certainly takes a broader approach.

Housing is another matter of high priority for most families. Many of them use their maternity capital to buy a bigger or better home. Many families also use borrowed capital for this. Therefore, as per the President’s instructions, we will extend the family mortgage programme for another six years, while maintaining its basic parameters.

Until the end of 2030, families who have their third child and subsequent children will still be entitled to a lump sum of 450,000 roubles to pay off their mortgage. The Government has submitted a corresponding bill to the State Duma.

Esteemed deputies, I hope that you will review it in the near future. 

Clearly, parents always want the best education for their children because it paves the way for being successful in adult life. Families need to be provided with opportunities to enroll children in modern and well-equipped kindergartens, and then schools. Therefore, we will cooperate with the regions to intensify the renovation and repair of preschools and kindergartens. In communities grappling with the worst shortage of places in kindergartens, we will continue to build new ones, co-financing the projects with federal funds. As the President said in his Address, our priority is to make sure that children learn in a comfortable environment, exploring both arts and sciences, and becoming familiar with new technologies from a very young age.

The new generation will grow to be millions of talented, ambitious and motivated citizens. We certainly need to give them a decent start. And we will definitely give them opportunities for fulfillment as part of the new national project, Youth and Children. It is very important to continue working on it together with the regions. 

Regional governments are also active in developing support measures for families and children. They have put forth local initiatives aimed at increasing the birth rate, in addition to the nationwide programmes. In response to the President’s instructions, we will help the regions implement their initiatives, providing additional funds to those regions where the demographic situation is the most problematic. In his Address, the President proposed launching a new comprehensive programme for protecting motherhood and maintaining the health of our children and adolescents. And this work is already underway.

In recent years, we have been active in building medical facilities, supplying thousands of pieces of equipment to them – I spoke about this in detail during my report. But there are certain difficulties that we face. The situation varies not only from region to region; it can also vary dramatically in the same community, where one clinic may be in good condition, with various medical specialists available, and in a clinic across the street, patients have to wait for appointments for a long time, and there is a shortage of equipment.

Much needs to be done to further improve the quality and accessibility of health services. And this can only be achieved through coordinated action at all levels, relying on feedback from patients and the healthcare community. 

In the next six years, we need to overhaul the primary care level. This will allow over 7 million more patients to be diagnosed promptly and start treatment. In line with the President’s instructions, we will continue fighting diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, cancer and other diseases. 

We will continue to create conditions promoting a healthy and active lifestyle and disease prevention. It is very important to shape a culture of self-care and good health among people of all ages, making physical checkups and regular sports the norm for everyone. Everyone needs to embrace the idea that such self-care is a substantial and useful contribution to their own future. All these measures will be reflected in the new national project. 

The fifth priority refers to boosting Russians’ incomes and prosperity. In his Address, the President set two very specific tasks. In the next six years, we are to reduce poverty and ensure that the share of people’s wages in the GDP increases. The Government will make all support measures more targeted. At the same time, higher employment rates, higher flexibility of the labour market and, very importantly, higher wages, should play the key role in this. 

Under the President’s instructions, it is essential to create a new model of remuneration for public sector employees – in the pilot regions at first – to later scale it to the whole country. Doctors, teachers and other employees in the social services sector, healthcare, education, culture and science should receive decent remuneration for their work. 

We also need long-term mechanisms. In particular, we need to revise the target figures for admission to degree programmes, so that university graduates meet the requirements set by companies, regions and the national economy as a whole. You actually mentioned this during my report.

The demand for blue-collar professions is growing. In response to the President’s instructions, colleges need to train a million workers. I am confident that these people will be the future of our industries – competent specialists familiar with state-of-the-art equipment and the latest techniques. And most importantly, their jobs will always be relevant, which means stable earnings and career opportunities.

The quality of teaching should be improved at all levels of education. Priority 2030, advanced engineering schools, the project to create modern university campuses – these initiatives will contribute to achieving this important goal, and, as I am sure, will have the desired effect.

The sixth point refers to a balanced development of the Russian regions. It is very important to ensure their economic autonomy, to give them reliable tools to improve the quality of life in local communities, to launch relevant initiatives in the social sphere and many other spheres, taking into account the situation in each region and that region’s potential.

More to be posted soon...