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The agenda includes economic, technological and social development in Russia.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends,

First of all, I would like to greet the project leaders and all participants in the Strong Ideas for a New Time forum. It is a great initiative. I want to thank all of you for the organisation of this important event. And, of course, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

Despite all the current difficulties, you have not abandoned your plans, and in fact had a real brainstorm, or one can say, crowdsourcing all across Russia. You have combined the energy of having a dream and brave endeavours for the development of Russia.

Of course, we will not be able to listen to the authors of all 15,000 ideas and projects today, but I am sure that most of them are comprehensive and constructive and all of them reflect the sincere desire of our citizens to build a Russia as we want to see it: a successful, safe, free and modern country where people are of highest value, where they can prosper, work, raise children and build their businesses, that is, a country that provides broad opportunities for self-fulfilment.

I would like to emphasise that in order to move forward together and strive for nation-wide success, the contribution of each person to the fate of Russia should be appreciated.

We need to help grow and implement the best ideas and proposals, offer more freedom for the realisation of social, environmental, educational, technological and business ideas, projects by creative industries, tourism development, as well as the development of our cities and rural areas.

In this context I would like to note that almost 10 years ago, when the Agency of Strategic Initiatives was being established, it was done to launch and implement civil initiatives. It is very important that, by supporting such separate projects, we will move forward.

It should be noted that as a result, specific steps were developed to improve the procedure and principles of the operation of hospitals, clinics and the social sphere as well as employment centres that today are at the epicentre of addressing labour market issues.

Let me repeat once again: we have to carefully examine people’s proposals, look into their life situations and tailor measures to support Russian families and overcome poverty to solve their problems. Our focus must always be on the demographic and social policy, which means we must take a serious step towards improving the quality of life and welfare of the Russian people, so that they would live up to the 21^st-century standards.

Friends,

The world is changing rapidly. We can see colossal changes in technologies and public life. A new era is dawning. We need strong ideas and also effective mechanisms for dynamic and sustainable development. We must also have the ability to implement them.

It is necessary to turn interesting and substantive ideas into viable projects with a team and an action plan, to lift administrative and legislative barriers and choose clear sources of financing.

The Agency’s Expert Council headed by Igor Shuvalov has rich experience here. As part of preparations for the forum, you engaged almost 900 experts, including those competent in project management, and helped to develop 1,000 of the best ideas presented at the forum so far.

We must increase dramatically the scale of this support. In order to do this, I would like to ask the Government, VEB RF and the Agency of Strategic Initiatives to develop and launch a complex mechanism to implement socially important projects of the people. I suggest examining how the model is working regularly, at every meeting of the Agency’s Supervisory Board, as well as how many ideas gained support and were implemented in practice.

Similar, system-oriented effective instruments must, of course, also be used to support school children (I know we will discuss this today) and students when they launch their businesses. Projects of our young entrepreneurs and young technical talents must “take off” and become successful start-ups, and, still better, companies that will be competitive in Russia and the rest of the world. It is necessary to strive for this goal by all means and certainly support such ambitious attitudes. Naturally, in this context, today I would like to hear the specific proposals of the Youth Initiative Centre established at the ASI.

In this context, I would like to note and emphasise the following: we need each and every idea, each idea matters, the concepts of young people are extremely important. It is very good that they are already setting vectors, accelerating the speed of changes, creating so-called new meanings, culture, media and business models, as well as unique technical solutions. I would like to repeat it once again: this is very precious for us. I am inviting young people to take a more active, involved and meaningful part in our common efforts to develop the country.

Friends,

Before we go over to dialogue, to the discussion of what you have done, I would just like to say a few words about some of the things that I consider extremely important.

What are they? In all times and historical eras, Russia’s strength has been based on the talent of our people, our ideals and values, mutual aid, respect for our history and patriotism.

Today, these moral principles are expressed in sincere, inimitable cultural and educational initiatives, the social service of volunteers and the non-profit sector, and the work of the search movement that keeps our memory of the Great Patriotic War.

Owing to these common values we feel as a single nation and sincerely share our common destiny, victories and difficulties.

This year, as it has always been during trying turbulent times and we are now undergoing serious pandemic-related trials, ordinary citizens, young people, medical workers and entrepreneurs have done, are doing and, I am sure, will do striking deeds that deserve admiration because of their generosity and cordiality. We really do have many bold, honest, responsive and active people that form the foundation of Russia. We must reveal the enormous creative powers of our people, implement their unique, distinctive ideas and solutions and build together a comfortable life for our people, build a comfortable country.

We can and will do this together by all means.

Thank you for your attention. Now let’s get down to work.

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