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The Governor started his report with transport issues, stressing that the transport facilities launched that day set the direction for the region’s overall development.

Among the transport facilities still to be built, Gleb Nikitin mentioned the M-158 federal motorway, the Nizhny Novgorod bypass on the M-7 motorway and a route bypassing the city of Balakhna.

The Governor also noted that Nizhny Novgorod Region is a pilot region for the renewal of public transport. Its 112 electric buses will be among Europe’s biggest electric bus fleets with 58 of them manufactured in Nizhny Novgorod by the GAZ plant. In addition, the entire fleet of trams will be overhauled, with 170 new trams replacing older vehicles within two years. The Governor mentioned that another important issue was the use of special treasury loans to acquire buses for small communities. While 621 buses were purchased between 2018 and 2022, this year, special treasury loans will ensure the delivery of 306 buses.

Underground construction is proceeding at full speed. According to the Governor, just a few days ago a tunnel-boring shield arrived in the city, and the drilling of tunnels will start shortly. Gleb Nikitin said that all this had been made possible with the President’s support and close coordination with the Government’s Regional Development Commission, as well as thanks to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s efforts.

In terms of the economy in general, the Governor reported 6.5 percent growth in the gross regional product in the first half of the year. All the indicators are going up: agriculture has risen by 7.9 percent in six months, construction by 18.9 percent, industry by 7.9 percent. The consumer market is also recovering. Capital investment has increased by 18 percent.

Practically all the industries that are important to the nation are expanding – production in transport, aircraft and shipbuilding has gone up by 12 percent, in electrical equipment, by 55 percent and in computers and electronics, by 22.6 percent. In the automotive industry as a whole, there has been growth of 156 percent while production at the GAZ company has increased by about 25 percent in the past six months.

Output in the military-industrial complex has increased 1.7 times over in the past seven months while the number of employees has risen by just two percent, indicating that the result is due to increased labour productivity.

The Governor also mentioned a number of achievements of the region’s enterprises such as Radar MMS company’s designs of unmanned aviation systems. There are already two small companies which are designing entirely new combat systems and transport systems. A regional resource centre has been set up to train UAV operators. The Governor asked for the President’s support for the inclusion of the Nizhny Novgorod Region in the programme for setting up Unmanned Aerial System centres.

Vladimir Putin pointed out one of the region’s problems: a large number of medical facilities there need to be renovated and upgraded. Gleb Nikitin explained that a primary healthcare programme had already been launched with 682 facilities either completed or in the making. According to him, medical complexes need to be streamlined, and the issue of understaffing should be addressed. He added that urban facilities had not been included in the programme, it covered mainly rural facilities, however, work in this area would be intensified.

The President noted that whatever task Gleb Nikitin set himself, he normally did well. Vladimir Putin thanked the Governor for the good progress in the Nizhny Novgorod Region under his guidance.