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Dmitry Medvedev stressed the strategic importance of energy saving and energy efficiency programme for the modernisation of Russia's economy and social sphere. This programme essentially shapes a new economy, improves the competitiveness of Russian goods and services, creates new businesses, new industries, and undoubtedly improves the country's environmental situation and quality of life.

However, work carried out in this field remains insufficient. Recalling that a law on energy saving and energy efficiency was passed almost a year ago, President Medvedev outlined a number of organisational problems that individuals, private companies and the public sector still face.

According to Dmitry Medvedev, regional energy efficiency programmes must be operating in full force. As of now 54 regional programmes have been developed and approved, 25 are under discussion and 4 are being developed.

The President stressed that funds for energy efficiency are desperately needed even during what is a difficult period for many regions, because in the future such investments will amount to budgetary savings. Most importantly, the implementation of energy efficiency programmes should help Russian citizens cut down their expenses for housing and public utility services.

The place for the Commission meeting was not chosen at random: more rational energy usage is one of the main priorities of Naberezhnye Chelny's social and economic policy. This year the city equipped all its apartment buildings with meters monitoring the consumption of all types of utilities. More than 80 percent of households have individual automatic heating units installed to monitor and manage their heat consumption: these devices reduce consumption and heating bills by up to 30 percent. Despite the fact that new housing has been built, the city has reduced its energy consumption over the past five years.

Before the Commission's meeting, President Medvedev examined the automatic heat regulation system in one of the city's apartment buildings, and visited an exhibition of energy saving and energy efficiency technologies implemented in Tatarstan's housing and public utility services sector.

At a meeting with President of Tatarstan, Dmitry Medvedev and Rustam Minnikhanov discussed ways to improve energy efficiency. Particular attention was paid to the introduction of modern technologies in housing and public utility services.