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Oleg Kozhemyako began with an update on the situation following the August 12 flood. He reported on the rescue operations, which were held jointly with the Emergencies Ministry, army troops and the Pacific Fleet, and the restoration of electricity and water distribution. Payments are being made to the flood victims. The flood damaged farmlands, roads and bridges. Overall, damage has been estimated at over 7.5 billion rubles. The Governor asked for support from the federal Government. He also asked the President to support scientists’ idea of establishing a Far Eastern climate laboratory at the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Governor added that the regional authorities and the Emergencies Ministry had drafted a law which will be forwarded to the State Duma soon, on the possibility of transferring the authority to conduct riverbed cleaning and dredging operations to municipal and territorial authorities to prevent flooding.

The Governor noted that the regional economy reported good results. Consolidated budget revenues have increased by 25 percent and investments have doubled over the past few months to 155 billion rubles. Oleg Kozhemyako told the President about an accelerated economic development programme for the Primorye Territory. It includes transport, logistics and investor projects to build new ports, therefore road junctions are needed, and construction of the ring road should be continued in light of the construction of a transport and logistics hub, the so-called land ports. This will have a multiplication effect on federal customs payments to the budget, which will grow from 750 billion rubles in 2022 to one trillion rubles in 2023. The construction of transport and logistics centres could further increase this revenue to four trillion rubles within five years.

Other issues on the agenda included roads to border checkpoints and the development of the Khasansky District, which is the closest point for China’s Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces to send goods from China and to China via Russian seaports. Currently, trade turnover stands at nearly 30 million tonnes.

Replying to Vladimir Putin’s question about challenges other than the recent flood, Oleg Kozhemyako mentioned several issues that called for the President’s involvement, in particular, a runway at the airport and the improvement of railway transport. A separate railway line should be built to Nakhodka because port capacities are increasing.

Oleg Kozhemyako said that in healthcare, the region prioritises the creation of new medical centres, in particular, a design for a communicable disease centre with a capacity of 400 beds is nearly complete, and assistance is needed in the construction of an infectious diseases hospital and a children’s hospital.

When Vladimir Putin mentioned the low capacity of outpatient clinics, the Governor replied that they were building nine outpatient clinics in the region under the primary care modernisation programme. However, there are problems with personnel, especially at the primary care level. Additional opportunities are being created for extramural training of nursing staff. Efforts are being made to attract young people into this sphere by creating classes at school that major in medicine. Targeted enrolment of students will help deal with the personnel issue soon.