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Director General of ASI Svetlana Chupsheva: Mr President, it seems it is becoming a pleasant tradition that during our meetings I present you with new tourist routes.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I will review them with interest.

Svetlana Chupsheva: Last time, I gifted you a collection of our new Russian tourist routes. This time, I would like to present you with our joint project with the Government of the Republic of Belarus on industrial tourism – Two Countries, Thousands of Factories. Please accept this.

Vladimir Putin: Is this industrial tourism?

Svetlana Chupsheva: Yes, it is indeed industrial tourism. Our friends and colleagues from the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Initiatives observed the implementation of our project in the Russian Federation and expressed keen interest. We held several meetings, visited their facilities, engaged with enterprise directors, and secured support from the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Belarus. This initiative showcases 50 factories and enterprises from Belarus and Russia with shared histories, encompassing both cooperative and historical ties. I consider this a compelling tourism initiative for the citizens of our nations and for expanding future collaboration.

Vladimir Putin: Intriguing. Thank you, I will certainly examine it.

Svetlana Chupsheva: Thank you.

Dmitry Chernyshenko also actively supports all our tourism-related projects, which is why they are succeeding.

Mr President, today I would like to discuss two new programmes we are implementing this year.

The first is a programme for the development of core communities, spearheaded by the Government of the Russian Federation. We have contributed through public projects, entrepreneurial initiatives, and our solutions and best practices for enhancing the quality of life in small towns.

We have compiled an extensive atlas of effective infrastructure and service solutions for residential communities of varying sizes, tailored to maximise their efficacy. These solutions span transport, housing and utilities, urban improvement, education, and healthcare. Remarkably, many are offered free of charge by Moscow. While Moscow is a vast metropolis, numerous solutions – particularly digital ones – are fully adaptable to small towns and demonstrate proven effectiveness. For example, in healthcare: AI-driven clinical decision support systems and diagnostic imaging analysis.

In the Nizhny Novgorod Region, this has significantly improved diagnostic accuracy in medical institutions. Another example is joint procurement, which Moscow proposes to implement alongside individual municipalities or regions.

Take the Novgorod Region: by procuring medical equipment jointly with Moscow, Novgorod saved 500 million rubles for its regional budget. These substantial funds were reallocated by the regional leadership to other investment projects.

And we believe that these are very good decisions and practices that will be useful to Russian regions.

Vladimir Putin: They need to be applied across the country.

Svetlana Chupsheva: Yes. And in small towns as well. At the end of last year, we presented 80 effective solutions for the transport sector. This included practices from Moscow and other regions of Russia. It is very important that the heads of municipalities are already trying them out, assessing their effectiveness, starting from communities with 5,000 residents to those with 100,000 residents and more. We have been able to evaluate their performance already, and we hope that this work will be expanded as much as possible this year.

Mr President, in keeping with your instructions, we support projects to involve architectural and cultural heritage sites in economic circulation. For small towns, they certainly represent significant potential for promoting tourism and history.

Together with the Government of the Russian Federation (Maxim Oreshkin is personally involved in these projects), we are reviewing the applicability of such projects and the financial model for attracting investment, to ensure that these projects are of interest to investors.

We accomplished a great deal last year; this year, we are planning to work on support measures and ways to make these projects more attractive for investment. The agency has developed a number of model solutions, and today, we are actively cooperating with several pilot regions.

One project is a programme to provide medical care for participants in the special military operation. Mr President, this year is the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland.

Vladimir Putin: Military and civilian medicine?

Svetlana Chupsheva: Yes. We did our best to amass all the resources and competencies currently available in military hospitals, all the new technologies that are available in civilian and military medicine, and combine them in the centre of competence for civil and military medicine.

This project is supported by the Ministry of Defence and the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation. We are implementing this project together with the Burdenko Military Hospital. The Society of Russian Surgeons is also providing support. This year, we plan to establish such centres in every federal district. They will mostly focus on surgery, particularly military field surgery, because, obviously, military medics have been accumulating unique experience and competencies.

Vladimir Putin: What facilities will they use?

Svetlana Chupsheva: The centres will open at existing regional hospitals. It is very important that, after treatment at military hospitals, after complex surgeries, our veterans can receive top-notch medical care and rehabilitation close to home, which is why we want such competencies in every region.

Vladimir Putin: Very important, I fully agree. Very important. Good, we will see what we can do.

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