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Vladimir Putin visited the village of Ryndino where he learned about the upgraded medical and obstetric station opened in December 2023 under the Healthcare Development programme. The station's upgrades have improved the quality of primary medical care for the people of Ryndino and the Novaya Derevnya settlements, which have a population of about 740 people.

In addition, the President visited the Centre for Cultural Development in Tsivilsk and looked over the new assembly hall. The centre, built last year as part of the Culture national project, includes a dance hall, a library cafe, a computer room and an art room for studying painting.

Vladimir Putin was accompanied by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District Igor Komarov and Head of Chuvashia Oleg Nikolayev.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues!

Today, we will review with you a package of issues pertaining toon the development of the Chuvash Republic. We will discuss the goals facing this Volga region in the social and demographic areas, in transport, logistics, energy, infrastructure and other economic sectors.

We have already discussed this with Head of the Republic Mr Nikolayev, but last year Chuvashiaia demonstrated recorded Russia’s second highest industrial production growth rates. This information even came as a surprise even to me. This is aAll the more so since the republic had a balanced growth of in the defence industry and civilian production – the this correlation has did not changed recently while theeven as growth rates were very impressive at – by 27.2 percent.

The pManufacturing industry production hasies have increased by about a third, while the unemployment rate proved to be even below the national average. In Russia, the national average is at its a historical low of 2.9 percent, but in Chuvashiaia it is a mereonly 2.3 percent.

This dynamics is very good. It shows that industrial capacityies are is being used, the structure of the regional economy is changing, employment is going up, as I said, and hence thus, the incomes and welfare of families are bound to grow as well.

It is very important to make sure that the expansion of industrial potentialities and intensified business activities in the region allows it to reach goals related to higher living standards at a new level – to expand the construction and repairs of roads, upgrade utility networks, improve the urban and rural environment and put into serviceopen new schools, kindergartens, outpatient clinics and hospitals. Mr Nikolayev just said that when a new kindergarten was built near this placehere people instantly quickly bought flats in the new residential buildings in the district. This shows how important this is for people.

Of course, in this context we have many forms of support for families with children. We must focus on all of them to carry out regional demographic programmes.

Like all regions in the federation, Chuvashia is taking part in of the national projects. Today, we have a video link with federal ministers and government executives. I am hoping that you, colleagues, will tell us about the interaction with your partners in the region and your further plans on developing it.

We just visited a medical and obstetrics station and now we are in a cultural facility that is about to open – the opening ceremony is due on March 8. I am very pleased to say that the funds we are allocating from the federal budget on such projects are not just disappearing into some black hole but are turning into real projects.

As I said, we just saw this medical and obstetric al station. This is a small, modest building but it is changing the life lives of people beyond recognitionin new ways – both those who work there and those who use its services.

There is a lot to work on. I think we allocated four billion rubles for this purpose. (Addressing Mikhail Murashko.) Mr Murashko, we have allocated four billion rubles for the construction of medical and obstetric stations, correct?

Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko: We are now spending almost 100 billion rubles annually on medical and obstetric stations, including as part of the modernisation of primary care, for the country as a whole; this includes both medical and obstetric stations and outpatient clinics. And Chuvashia is spending a billion rubles a year on modernising primary care.

Vladimir Putin: But I think we have planned four billion for the next few years.

Mikhail Murashko: For Chuvashia, yes, absolutely right.

Vladimir Putin: There are specific wishes, requests, you could say, from those who work there directly. They are very modest people who do very important work. I will return to Moscow later, so to speak, small things on our scale will have to be done by all means.

But we also need to look at the agenda in general, in a broader sense. What are we talking about?

In 2019, we assessed Russia's regions by the state of their economy, social sphere, and fiscal capacity. Based on this analysis, we launched additional development programmes for ten constituent entities, aimed at training workers, strengthening industry, agriculture, tourism, and so on. These additional individual programmes for ten regions – we will also need to look at them to see how the work is going here.

Let me remind you of the constituent entities in question: Adygea, Altai, Kalmykia, Karelia, Mari El, Tyva, Chuvashia, the Altai Territory, the Kurgan and Pskov Regions. The amount of support for the entire term of the programme for each region is five billion rubles.

I repeat once again: all Russian regions have good potential for growth. It is important to help them unlock, tap this potential and use it, to set up work in promising areas that provide a solid base for regional economies, to improve the financial stability and self-sufficiency of these regions.

As I have already mentioned, Chuvashia is also implementing an individual development programme. The payoff is obvious: it is the growth of the gross regional product, strengthening of the revenue base. In this regard, I would say that the republic's own budget revenues have increased approximately 1.8 times over the past five years. Yes? Is that so?

Head of Chuvashia Oleg Nikolayev: Almost twofold.

Vladimir Putin: This is a good indicator – an almost twofold increase.

This year, individual development programmes are being completed in the constituent entities. I suggest that we use Chuvashia as an example to analyse how many projects have been implemented, how many jobs have been created, and how much private investment has been attracted thanks to targeted federal support.

In this connection, I would like to say once again that such an analysis is important not only for assessing the work of the regional authorities and the relevant federal ministries and agencies, but it will also serve as a basis for making managerial decisions in general. I am referring to the possible extension and expansion of individual development programmes for the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

And in general, let us see how we need to fine-tune the mechanism we are talking about now – in general, mechanisms designed to stimulate the development of regions, their economic, social and infrastructure development.

Let's begin.

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