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The main subject of the meeting was the National Development Agenda of the Russian Federation for 2025–2030. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin delivered the keynote report.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

As per tradition, at the end of the year we hold a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects to analyse the progress of the key nationwide programmes and outline further steps together with members of the Government, heads of regions, and representatives of business, scientific and public associations.

As you know, this year we are concluding the current national projects. They have brought substantial changes to the economy and the social sphere, and they have improved the quality of life for our citizens.

A large-scale modernisation programme began for cities, towns and villages. Since 2018, almost 95,000 public spaces and residential courtyards have been improved. The All-Russia Contest to Create Comfortable Urban Environment was launched, with 800 winning projects already implemented.

We are taking care of the road network. The roads in many cities have become objectively better in the past six years. As we agreed, by the end of this year, 85 percent of the roads in the biggest metropolitan areas must meet regulatory standards. When it comes to regional motorways, we expected that the share of standard-compliant roads will reach 50 percent. However, we can see that the actual progress will be over 54 percent. We are ahead of schedule, even if only slightly.

Under the Environment national project, 60 regions have eliminated 242 objects of accumulated harm to the environment, including 157 major landfills that literally poisoned people’s existence. Now, these objects have been eliminated and their territory reclaimed, bringing comfort and safety to over 20 million people. I must emphasise, particularly to those who are centrally involved in this work and to the heads of the regions: there is still much more work to do than has been done. Colleagues, I want to draw your attention to this. However, the environmental sphere is changing for the better. Similarly, Russian healthcare is also changing.

In the course of primary care modernisation, more than 1,000 outpatient clinics have been built or renovated, and 174,000 pieces of modern medical equipment have been purchased in the past four years. Much has been done to increase the accessibility of medical care, particularly in small towns and villages where 10,000 paramedic centres, outpatient facilities, and so on, have been built and renovated.

As part of the Demography national project, 246,000 places in childcare facilities for children under the age of three years have been created, and nearly 1,700 new kindergartens have been opened.

Positive changes have also been made in the general education system. Since 2019, almost 1,400 new schools have been built, enrolling 850,000 children. By the end of the year, an additional 150 schools with over 100,000 new places will be opened.

We have also initiated a large-scale school renovation programme, focusing on upgrading classrooms, internal infrastructure, and the overall appearance of school buildings. By the end of this year, 4,800 buildings will have been renovated. In total, 7,346 buildings are scheduled for major repairs between 2022 and 2026.

In terms of transportation, direct air connections are being enhanced through airport modernisation and the expansion of the route network. The share of flights that connect cities without a stopover in Moscow – a situation we often discussed in the past, where traveling to a nearby region required a stopover in Moscow – now exceeds 50 percent. While there is still work to be done, significant progress has been made. This improvement means domestic flights are becoming more convenient and faster, and I hope this will help curb the rise in ticket prices.

Over the past six years of implementing a comprehensive plan for modernising and expanding key infrastructure, we have significantly increased the volume of work on the Eastern Operating Domain. The carrying capacity of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway, our main routes, has been notably enhanced.

What is particularly significant is that in recent years, we have built a strong construction complex in infrastructure, including roads, railways, and ports. This includes multidisciplinary companies with skilled personnel, expertise, and equipment, all of which are ready to construct new industrial and logistics facilities. In the coming years, it is crucial to maintain the pace of infrastructure development to fully engage this entire capacity created.

What I have outlined so far is by no means all that has been accomplished through national projects in recent years. I would also like to highlight the valuable experience gained from the collaboration between government bodies, the business community, and civil groups in achieving national development goals.

To systematise this experience and provide an objective assessment, I ask the Accounts Chamber to analyse the implementation of national projects from 2019 to 2024 and to draw appropriate conclusions and recommendations. I ask the Government to consider these findings when implementing new national projects, which are designed to address the current challenges facing our country and to tackle tasks of strategic importance for Russia’s long-term development, essentially, until the middle of the next decade. Of course, we must also examine what remains undone, identify the reasons behind it, and determine what actions are necessary to ensure full implementation.

Colleagues,

All our actions, plans, and programmes rely on the actual state of the economy, reflecting objective trends in employment, industry, finance, services, and other sectors. These factors shape the resource capabilities of the state, businesses, regions, and specific localities, specific territories.

To expand these opportunities, a sustainable platform for national development is needed. This platform must encompass our own technologies, a modern education system, the removal of bottlenecks in infrastructure, logistics, and communications, building capacity of the financial sector, and the provision of accessible resources and energy to businesses, organisations, cities and towns.

We certainly have all the necessary elements to build a national development platform, and we frequently discuss this with you. We will continue to strengthen it, including through strategic partnerships with friendly countries. I am confident that such partnerships will only increase, and we can already see this process unfolding.

I want to emphasise that success cannot be achieved by relying solely on external sources. We must be strong, confident, and self-sufficient, securing all forms of sovereignty – economic, social, state, and technological.

This was outlined in the Address to the Federal Assembly at the start of the year and later reinforced in the May executive order, which set forth national development goals for the country. These goals focus on crucial areas such as demography, improving citizens’ well-being, addressing environmental challenges, enhancing the quality of life, and creating favourable conditions for business and personal self-realisation, enabling individuals to pursue interesting, well-paid work. Additionally, achieving technological leadership for Russia and widely implementing digital solutions in governance, the economy, and social sectors are key priorities. While much remains to be done, we are making significant progress, and we must continue building on these achievements to move forward.

The primary tool for achieving these goals will be new national projects, which will serve as a roadmap for their realisation. These projects will be launched next year and are set to be completed within six years. The Government has already prepared the necessary documents. Today, as part of our meeting, I suggest we revisit and evaluate the decisions and approaches outlined in these plans. Allow me to start by sharing a few general, systemic thoughts.

To begin with, the targets of our national projects must be objective. They must be based on the real state of affairs, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions, and ensure continuity from the previous national projects.

It should be noted that this cannot be said about all the indicators at present. For example, it is estimated that air mobility, that is, the number of people travelling by air, will remain unchanged at the 2023 level over the next five years. But this is an obvious underestimation. Over the first 10 months of 2024, air transportation increased by more than six percent, which means that the year-end result will exceed the 2023 level. All of us here are aware of the situation in the aviation industry, or at least those engaged in this professionally are, and we understand the situation with our aircraft fleet. But the upward trend in the sphere of transportation is here to stay. Therefore, this matter must be addressed. We cannot pretend that this is not happening. Why lie to ourselves?

I would like to ask our colleagues to once again analyse all the indicators of national projects so that they can be promptly adjusted. In the future, I suggest discussing and making such amendments only at Council meetings. I would like to repeat that we must not be guided by the bureaucratic logic, which implies adjusting indicators downwards to simplify our jobs and ultimately report good results. This should not be done; it is unacceptable. Why lie to ourselves?

I would like to add that the indicators of our national projects must reflect the planned results, showing how much any given socioeconomic development parameter will be improved in reality, such as the urban environment and ecology, what additional opportunities will be created for small and medium-sized businesses, and so on.

In this context, we should inform our citizens about the goals, tasks and indicators of national projects in detail and in understandable terms. As I said, all these projects are focused on the interests of our people, on the interests of Russian families.

With this in view, I propose compiling a special reference book, which will not be written in bureaucratese but will tell people in simple terms about the concrete stages ahead of us and the results and positive changes in their lives which they will see and feel following the implementation of national projects.

I would like to ask the Russia National Centre to compile such reference book and the Government to render the necessary assistance.

Next. Spending on national projects will become a federal budget priority for the coming years. All project events and actions must be fully funded. Funds must be allocated and translated into specific projects, construction sites, facilities; and this must be done actively, as scheduled.

I want to emphasise again: it is not only about the amounts of funding and budget discipline, which, of course, is very important too. The main thing is that they help achieve tangible results: new kindergartens and schools, which I have just mentioned, repaired roads and utility networks, upgraded hospitals and outpatient clinics, advanced production facilities created from scratch, and eliminated landfills, among other things.

In this context, I would like to add that we agreed that the new national projects would be ready by September 1, which means before the federal and regional budgets are ready. Unfortunately, this work took a little longer than expected, and we were not able to fully synchronise the budget process and planning of national projects. As a result, the regions do not have a full picture yet regarding how, in what volumes, and in what timeframes federal resources will be allocated. If I do not understand something here, if I am mistaken, let my colleagues from the regions correct me. However, it seems to me that there is still a risk that practical work on national projects may stall at the beginning of the year. This cannot be allowed, colleagues.

I hope that heads of the regions will speak about this separately in their reports. I would also like to ask the Government to address the issues we have outlined during the days left before the New Year celebrations and, if need be, even work additionally during the lengthy festive season, so that the regions have both the funds and clear understanding of the tasks at hand.

By the way, writing off part of the state debt, as well as allocation of additional targeted loans for infrastructure renovation and improvement of the situation in the housing and utilities sector will be a good financial support for the regions.

At the moment, the Government, together with the State Council commissions, is in the last stage of developing these mechanisms. I ask you not to delay this work and finalise all the details in the near future.

Meanwhile, special attention should be paid to the Arctic and Far Eastern regions, as well as regions with a low fiscal capacity and, of course, those regions where individual socioeconomic development programmes are being implemented. The decision to continue these programmes has been made.

Let me remind you that, following the Eastern Economic Forum, an instruction was issued to include action items of master plans for Far Eastern and Arctic cities in the national projects and provide funding for them. These localities are of strategic importance for Russia, so they require special attention. Moreover, the Infrastructure for Life, Efficient Transport System, Family, Long and Active Life, and Youth and Children national projects must feature separate sections with action items of these master plans. They must be aligned. As of today, this has not yet been fully implemented. I expect that all shortcomings will be eliminated within a month. I am asking you not to delay this work.

Overall, it is necessary to make the work of project committees and the entire national project management system planned and thorough. In general, this work has been organised. I would like to ask you not to lose anything in quality and pace in order to confidently, step by step, achieve the set goals. This means that documents must be prepared and discussed in a timely manner. I would also like to ask the meeting participants to speak out on this topic.

I repeat: it is important to get moving and set a high pace and quality of the overall work. In this regard, I suggest evaluating the launch of national projects, their progress, and the first results at the next meeting of our Council in June.

Of course, it is important to use up-to-date digital and platform solutions here and conduct big data analysis. The Government has already mastered this practice. It must be actively and widely applied.

At the same time, we must always receive feedback from people and uncover problems on site in order to adjust and amend national projects in a timely manner, based on the actual situation.

Let me repeat: it is people’s opinion that plays the key role here. National projects must address real problems of Russian families and result in improving the quality of people’s life in all regions.

In this connection, we will assess the effectiveness of the Government’s performance on national projects not only in terms of achieving key indicators, but also using opinion polls, based on feedback, including via the channels of the Russian Popular Front and political parties, primarily those represented in parliament, which communicate directly with their voters.

The latest surveys show the following: according to people, the most tangible results of national projects have been reached in the area of preschool education, that is, the availability and operation of nurseries and kindergartens, in creating conditions for people’s self-realisation, as well as in ​​repairing and building motor roads, and improving the quality and convenience of public services.

What is no less important, surveys also show low-performing areas, where people are not content with the situation, and accordingly, these issues require increased attention. I mean the level of medical care, housing availability, and, in general, the creation of conditions for more children to be born in families. As we understand, this is not only about child benefits, but also about additional opportunities in the area of education, healthcare, sports, culture and leisure, tourism and recreation. In short, all those areas of life that are important to people and should be as comfortable as possible, as well as focused on the needs of large families with children.

I have just mentioned these areas, but this does not mean that nothing is being done in this respect. On the opposite, a lot has been done. But I am not talking about this now. I talk about how people perceive this, which is the main indicator. We know that we have achieved record high results in housing construction; we have never had results like this. I think the Soviet Union never saw such rates of construction we have now, thank God. But what I talked about is people’s reaction. You know, earlier I mentioned the transparency and accessibility of information for people. We are talking about mortgage, especially family mortgage, which we preserved at the rate of two percent. This is good. However, nobody knows that the Ministry of Finance has limits on this family mortgage at two percent. Let us tell people openly, I understand that we have to fight inflation, but we need to tell them honestly that for this and that reason we are giving a family mortgage at two percent, but there is a limit to this, so whoever wants it should hurry up, as the limit will end in the middle of the year or by November or December. We just need to be honest about it, and it will be clear. Such as things are today, people go to take out a mortgage, and they are rejected because the limit has been reached. What limit? Nobody knows about this, but people need to know. Then there will be a normal dialogue with society; everything will be clear. There is nothing special about it, no need to hide anything. This is better than a situation when people come to get a mortgage only to find out that there is nothing for them to get.

I would like to repeat once again. I ask the Government, together with the regions, to thoroughly analyse each area of concern within existing national projects, determine the regions with the most complicated situation, and propose all the necessary solutions for and adjustments to future national projects. Overall, I would like to ask my colleagues from the Presidential Executive Office, the Government, and the regions to set target indicators for the future that are not lower than the current level of 2024.

I would like to once again draw our colleagues’ attention to the fact that national projects are not of a departmental or industry-specific nature. They must yield an overall effect for the country’s progress, which means they should bring together all government authorities and all levels of power, the public, and all responsible and creative forces of our society.

The Russian Academy of Sciences and business associations are assigned a special role in drafting and implementing national projects. In this connection, I suggest we set up a special working force on the platform of our Council to further coordinate the actions of development institutions within the framework of national projects. It will also involve the department heads of the Government’s financial and economic bloc. I ask Igor Shuvalov to head this work, to organise and lead it. We have discussed that in broad terms. I think that VEB, of course, is ready for this; it is a good tool for coordinating this kind of work.

Colleagues,

As is customary at the end of the year, I would like to elaborate on the key tasks we are facing in the coming year 2025.

Firstly, the main challenge for the Russian economy now is a transition to a balanced growth trajectory, with low unemployment and moderate inflation. I spoke about this yesterday at the VTB forum, both during my brief address and later in the discussion.

I would like to reiterate that reaching a sustainable trajectory of balanced growth is a joint task of the Government and the Central Bank. It is crucial to be aware of that and to build the mechanisms of the entire state policy, including monetary policy, accordingly.

Secondly, we will continue to ramp up Russia’s production potential, thereby developing the supply-side economy. We will employ such business support measures that can produce a maximum effect on increasing the output of goods and services in those sectors where it is most needed.

I ask the Government to further fine-tune the regulatory framework for the real sector, improve regulatory environment and remove administrative barriers for manufacturing businesses. We are constantly doing this and yet we constantly see that such work is nevertheless needed.

I would like to make it clear: colleagues, do not think that we can keep urgent decisions on the backburner. We need to act here and now, while taking into account the objective factors that affect businesses. I am referring to the need for human resources, vocational job professionals, the supply of materials, equipment and technological solutions to enterprises.

In this regard, the third point. The coming year will be a key year for launching a new stage of technological development of our country. Just a few days ago, the Government discussed these issues, very substantively, and our colleagues looked into this matter in detail, discussing how to ensure Russia’s technological leadership.

I repeat, we are not talking about producing everything domestically. This is neither necessary nor possible. We need to achieve global competitiveness of our own technological solutions, enter the world market with them, and on this basis consolidate our leadership in certain areas. Now, unfortunately, national projects lack a block of such systemic tasks.

I would like to add that, while enhancing technological sovereignty, it is imperative to assess the situation in industries in general instead of assessing the state of their individual elements. Otherwise, it could appear that the objectives of relevant national projects have been formally achieved or even exceeded, yet in reality, independent and competitive sectors have not been developed.

I want to underscore one more important point. When advancing priority technological domains, wherever feasible, of course, it is essential to synchronise the efforts undertaken in the civilian domain with those in the defence sector. This coordination is crucial to avoid overlapping efforts and the dilution of resources. Additionally, I believe that shortly, in the near future, it will be necessary to address the diversification of the defence industry and individual enterprises, and we must lay the groundwork for these opportunities today.

I will address the rocket and space industry separately. I am aware that our colleagues are working on a dedicated national project. Within the framework of this project, we must ensure a systemic approach so that rocket and space industry gets clear-cut long-term comprehensive development plans and retains its status as a technological leader in our country, something we have agreed upon at Rocket and Space Corporation Energia’s venue in October of last year.

Fourthly, due to external restrictions and barriers, Russian enterprises encounter fewer opportunities to use Western logistics, insurance, and payment infrastructure. We are actively progressing in this domain, developing our own solutions, including in collaboration with our BRICS partners. These services are being developed on a modern technological basis, which means that they will be more efficient and reliable than their Western counterparts.

Furthermore, it is imperative to guarantee convenience and low costs for using the ruble in international transactions, thereby enhancing the role of the national currency in such exchanges. Crucially, there is a demand for this, and colleagues are eager to collaborate.

Moving forward, given the global demographic crisis that has also impacted Russia, supporting families and the birth rate is a crucial area of the government’s focus.

Next year, it is essential to create conditions conducive to a breakthrough in the demographic situation, acknowledging that these are exceedingly challenging tasks and, due to objective circumstances, not everything is within our control. Nonetheless, we must exert every effort within our capacity to achieve consistent growth in the birth rate in our nation, ensuring a positive trend in the future.

In this context, addressing the issues faced by families, particularly those with children, should be a central theme running through national projects. At our previous Council meeting in May, we discussed this, and a corresponding instruction was issued to the Government. I ask the State Council’s relevant commissions to continuously monitor the measures within all national projects aimed at enhancing the well-being and quality of life for families with children.

Moreover, we will soon discuss this matter at a State Council meeting, where we will sum up the results of the Year of the Family.

Thank you for your attention.

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