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The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Kiriyenko, Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister – Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev, deputy prime ministers Viktoria Abramchenko, Tatyana Golikova, Alexander Novak, Alexei Overchuk, Marat Khusnullin, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Presidential Aide Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Labour and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, Minister of Healthcare Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, and Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov were also invited to attend.

The discussion focused on the status of implementing the goals in the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly.

First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov gave the main report on the factors that will ensure economic growth. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov spoke on how to ensure technological sovereignty in the key areas of industrial production. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova devoted her report to the implementation of the projects and the presidential instructions in the social sector. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reported on the plans for the construction and development of the university campuses system. Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin spoke about the programme for comprehensive development of 2,000 populated localities in Russia and the modernisation of the housing and utilities system. Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko reported on environmental issues, including the requirement to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere and reduce the pollution of major water reservoirs. She also spoke about the importance of creating a closed-cycle economy, preserving the diversity of nature and developing environmental tourism.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

I suggest discussing our plans in light of the Address to the Federal Assembly which included the national development programme. It is in fact a comprehensive action plan to be implemented in the coming years and in the medium term.

Specific goals have been set in demographics, public health, education, child and youth upbringing, and professional education. Specific goals have been identified to reinforce the country’s technological sovereignty and to develop new digital platforms, to improve the urban and rural infrastructure, and to enhance transport and other infrastructure.

New national projects will be launched as early as next year to address these and other key areas.

In this regard, I would like to add that we have created a fairly steady and reliable foundation to achieve these goals. The ongoing economic trends give us reason to believe that all of this is indeed achievable and that the plans we discussed are quite actionable.

As you are aware, in February, retail price increases slowed, inflation stabilised at 0.7 percent in February and even reached zero in the first couple of weeks of this month. Of course, in weekly terms, these figures are somewhat approximate and volatile, but nevertheless, this is how things are. Economic growth for January stood at 4.6 percent. GDP growth for the previous year was 3.6 percent, which is a satisfactory and quite a good indicator overall. In January, it was 4.6 percent which makes sense since this is just the beginning of the year.

If I am mistaken about something, my colleagues will correct me. That said, the trends that we are now seeing give us grounds to say that the plans suggested in the Address to the Federal Assembly are quite feasible. And it is necessary to start this work immediately.

In the process, it is important to ensure the detailed planning of all elements of the national projects. This planning must coordinate the actions of all levels of government, from municipal to federal. It should coordinate every effort, from the adoption of strategic decisions to practical implementation in every individual area.

Using, of course, the Government’s extensive experience, it is necessary to develop an integrated national project management system, use digital tools to monitor implementation and results and rely – as we keep saying – on the opinions of the people, on feedback from the public. All national projects must be aimed at reaching the national development goals. There is absolutely no room for old parochial approaches.

I will repeat that one of the Government’s jobs is to ensure smooth interaction, close coordination of government bodies, economic and social sectors, the business community, science, education, business associations and other institutions in civic society. And, of course, the regions across the Federation must play a tangible and largely key role in drafting and implementing these national projects.

In this context, I suggest holding next May a joint meeting of the State Council and the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, with the participation of regional governors. I believe it would be appropriate to discuss how to fulfil the assigned tasks on the ground, so to speak, in specific regions of the Federation, as well as to determine what additional tools will be needed to achieve the practical, tangible results that the Russian people are waiting for.

I would like to ask the Government to define its main approaches and principles as regards the implementation of the new national projects before the end of April. We will also discuss this issue separately in the next few meetings.

I know that our Government colleagues have already started this work. We met with the Prime Minister yesterday and discussed this. I think it is time to proceed with the practical work in every area.

Let’s get started on today’s meeting, please.

I am giving the floor to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. Go ahead, please.

First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov: Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, colleagues.

The Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly has articulated a key goal that must be achieved in the economic sphere by 2030. Notably, our country must become one of the top four largest global economies.

As you know, the Russian economy ranks fifth in GDP in terms of purchasing power parity. Our calculations show that Russia can become the fourth largest economy in the world outperforming Japan, provided it keeps growing sustainably by at least 2 percent annually and gradually accelerate to 3 percent by the end of the period. Overall, the country’s GDP should increase by about 20 percent by 2030.

I would like to briefly focus on five main mechanisms that will help us make this happen.

The first is to boost labour productivity, which was extensively covered in the address. This is critically important given the labour shortages. Furthermore, high labour productivity is the way forward to ensure sustainable real wage growth and the demand for Russian-made goods and services.

(According to Belousov, this will involve a large-scale reengineering of business processes at enterprises in core non-raw materials sectors of the economy and the social sphere. By 2030, the project will cover at least 12,000 enterprises, twice the current number, and all 288,000 social institutions. It is also imperative to expand the use of digital technology. In this regard, the effektivnost.rf platform, launched in the autumn of 2023, showcasing the best practices in domestic digital solutions, plays a key role. By 2030, the platform will have featured approximately 600 services and standard solutions.)

The second mechanism includes ensuring investment growth. Today, investment activity is high and reflects the large scale of the ongoing structural overhaul of the economy. Based on 2023 data, investment in fixed capital increased by 9.8 percent, which is almost triple of the GDP growth rate. The goal is to maintain the outstripping growth of investment throughout the 2025–2030 period.

(To achieve this, the First Deputy Prime Minister said, the focus will be on ensuring a predictable environment for investors. Additionally, efforts will continue to implement the regional investment standard. Currently, this standard has been introduced in 85 regions and endorsed by businesses. In 2023, the four new regions – the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions – joined this effort. They will implement this tool by June 2024. It is likewise imperative to stimulate investment by providing investment tax deductions and ensuring the stability of the financial market, which will make it possible to transform savings into investment in the Russian economy. The capitalisation of the Russian stock market in 2023 stood at about 34 percent of GDP. By 2030, it should reach 66 percent. On January 1, the Long-Term Individual Savings Programme was launched, a new type of individual investment account has been introduced, and simplified access to the Russian financial market was provided for foreign financial organisations from friendly countries.)

The third mechanism is support and build-up of non-primary non-energy exports in the markets of friendly countries. In accordance with the address [to the Federal Assembly], the volume of these exports must increase at least by two thirds and exports in the agro-industrial sector must go up by 50 percent. This is a very high, ambitious goal.

Support for exporting companies will be allocated at all stages of their export project cycles. The promotion of Russian products in external markets will be ensured by providing them with preferential, investment, pre-export and trade financing.

Special emphasis will be placed on promoting Russian goods and brands under the aegis of the ‘Made in Russia’ programme. Early this year, the first Made in Russia festival-and-fair took place in China with great success.

Russian producers will be helped in adapting their products to the requirements of new markets by the certification and homologation of their goods.

The development of the required infrastructure not only inside the country but also in friendly countries is a major goal. The plans include assistance for private businesses in establishing transport and logistics centers, industrial zones and the necessary port, storage and demonstration facilities abroad. Moreover, Russian exporters will be reimbursed for part of their transport expenses.

The fourth mechanism for expediting growth is support for small and medium-sized companies. By 2030, their share of profit per employee is supposed to grow by at least 23 percent over 2023. This is faster than GDP growth rates by 20 percent.

(Further, Andrei Belousov explained what measures are required to reach this goal. Thus, he spoke about expanding financial support for small and medium-sized companies, developing quality infrastructure, creating a uniform digital system of measures for federal and regional support of small businesses, encouraging them to enter global markets and simplifying the terms for creating new businesses).

And, finally, the fifth mechanism is the implementation of import substitution projects. Of course, import substitution as such is not an end in itself. However, within reasonable limits, it delivers on two targets at once: promoting economic sovereignty and stimulating growth.

Import substitution will be achieved with two main groups of measures.

The first group includes system-wide import substitution measures for a broad range of products. These include preferential loans, including those under the cluster investment platform and the Industrial Development Fund, as well as subsidies for research and development.

The second group of measures is the launch of technological sovereignty projects as described in the address [to the Federal Assembly]. Each of them is aimed at manufacturing specific lines of high-tech products based on their own developments. These projects are distinguished by the provision of guaranteed demand for critical technology development, training of personnel and special support measures. Tentatively, there will be 12 projects in this category, including machine-tool construction and robotics, new materials and chemicals, provision of food security, and new medical technology. The relevant deputy prime ministers will supervise these projects.

Mr President, the use of these mechanisms will allow the Russian economy to respond to current and future challenges. They will carry it on a trajectory of subsequent sustainable growth and allow it to reach the key goals set in the economic part of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly.

Thank you for your attention.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

How many small businesses were established in our country last year? I believe, 1.2 million.

Andrei Belousov: About 1.5 million, something close to this number.

Last year was unique in this respect. We intend to maintain this trend today. However, it can only be maintained with the help of the new instruments that we are now developing.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it was unique, indeed, because our companies replaced what was produced earlier by the foreign participants in the market of economic activity. In my opinion, substitution went very well. In many cases, we even improved the quality of some products and reduced the delivery time to the market. It was a good job.

Thank you.

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