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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, dear colleagues!

Today we are holding the first session of the Council for Implementing Priority National Projects. As you remember the main decision to form this body was made at a meeting on key social and economic issues in the beginning of September of the current year.

Recently the fundamental outlines and mechanisms for implementing these projects have been updated. The appropriate corrections have been integrated into the federal budget project for next year. And you know that the State Duma should finish examining the question within the next few days.

Let me remind you that around one hundred and thirty eight billion roubles shall be allocated for implementing national projects, and including money from private funds and state guarantees this sum amounts to one hundred and eighty billion roubles. I shall emphasize once again that these funds do not replace but are in addition to the financing scheduled for the appropriate branches of industry. And as a result in 2006 the federal budget's general expenditures on education and agriculture, public health services and housing will increase by more than a third, sixty percent and fourfold respectively. It is obvious that only a couple of years ago we could only have dreamt of such amounts.

Today the key issues are: the rational use of allocated funds, organization and control. This is our Council's most important task. Moreover, I shall add that the responsibility for the present implementation of these decisions and for effectively allocating the funds lies, first and foremost, with the federal Government. Making administrative decisions and implementing projects are necessary and First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolevich Medvedev will work on this every day. He is the head of the Council Presidium which has also begun its work. In turn, corresponding federal ministries will head the Council's interdepartmental working groups according to the nature of the projects.

Today I shall touch on the most vital issues associated with our work. First of all it is cooperation between the federal centre and the regions, the authorities and the professional community and, last but not least, supervising the implementation of the plans.

I shall point out that in October the colleges of ministries together with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation discussed the implementation of these projects in detail. I would also like to make reference to the activities of cabinet members who visit Russian regions on a regular basis. However some regional heads do not know exactly what they must do and how they must do it, and neither do many participants in this process: the heads of secondary schools, of out-patients’ clinics and so on. These people must also be involved in the overall process. Many measures should be realized by them and soon, as of January 2006.

It is obvious that a comprehensive system of control including planning and organizing at the regional level should be implemented with each project. There must be certain target parameters and personal responsibility. I shall point out that there are legal tools for this, and commitment of the regional heads of Russia. The Government as a whole as well as certain ministers are personally responsible for coordinating these projects, including coordinating work in the regions.

Regarding the form of supervision, the Presidential Executive Office and the plenipotentiary envoys in the federal regions have been already given the corresponding orders. I know that the Government is setting up a system of supervision of their own. I ask the Presidential Executive Office and the Government to finish creating a system to supervise and monitor implementing priority national projects as soon as possible.

Dear Colleagues!

I shall touch on those important tasks which should be accomplished in the near future and, first and foremost, on organizing additional payments. I am referring to paediatricians, therapists, general practitioners and medical nurses working for municipal clinics and also payments to teachers who are heads of classes. I draw your attention to the fact that by the beginning of February 2006 they must have received money that will also cover the month of January. From the second half of 2006 medical staff of emergency medical services and medical assistants at rural clinics should also receive additional payments. And I shall also remind you that we have already agreed to increase wages in the budget as a whole in the next three years by a minimum of one and a half times in real terms. Funds are allocated from the federal budget to sustain the said rate. I expect that regional and municipal authorities will also make their own necessary and agreed upon decisions regarding this problem that make sense within the larger context. I would like to emphasize that they make sense within the larger context of nationwide decisions, so that regions do not 'go it alone'. The heads of regions know what I am talking about: not waiting for federal direction and simply making their own decisions and then coming to the Finance Ministry saying: 'There's no money. We cannot implement our own plans and tasks'. This must not be.

Further. Proposals for housing and constructing new advanced medical technology centres are under consideration by the Government. The timelines are extremely short. And today we must make a fundamental decision on this question.

The next thing I would like to draw your attention to is criteria for selection of universities, schools, best teachers and talented youth to provide them with support from the federal budget. It is important to provide open and transparent competitions, and first of all this should be defined by the criteria for selection.

Rules and norms to support private agricultural enterprises and farms should be clear and easily applicable. The interests of ordinary people in rural areas should underlie the mechanisms of subsidising interest rates, creating agricultural cooperatives and systems of land-based mortgage credits.

As a whole, I would ask that special attention be paid to administrative procedures. Their inefficiency compounded by officials' slowness has repeatedly prevented the initial phase from attaining results. So the difficult, long and cumbersome procedure of registering land as private property has already become infamous. This does not only slow down investments into agriculture, but as a whole does not allow people to become full-value proprietors in rural areas, and also has a direct influence on the fruits of their work and the way of life in rural Russia. Therefore this work should be directly coordinated with all the projects to develop agriculture and agroindustry.

On September 5 we spoke about different opportunities to help rural areas in connection with Gazprom's initiative. I am referring to implementing a large scale programme for providing gas to the whole country. In the next three years, no less than an additional 35 billion roubles must be spent to this effect. I ask that you keep this in mind.

Now we shall address increasing the availability and quality of housing and an important issue here is augmenting the volume of housing construction. I consider that already at the beginning of next year projects in the regions to develop municipal infrastructure will be selected and developing new building sites for housing estates will begin. I wish to address the Government, the heads of regions of the Russian Federation, the deputies and first of all the deputies in the legislative assemblies in the regions: it is necessary to do everything to diminish the bureaucracy associated with making decisions in this sphere. Nothing can be achieved otherwise! At the level of clans, and I cannot even name them otherwise, everything gets stopped, nothing is let through; business is not able to develop in this sphere. I ask that there be a report on the first results at the Council's next session. In addition, this is also linked to the plans to implement housing programmes for servicemen. I agree with our colleagues in the Government who believe that if we do not diminish the bureaucracy in the area of housing construction for military, and only add an additional fifteen billion next year, this will only lead to an increase in prices. Dmitry Anatolevich (addressing Dmitry Medvedev) I ask that you report on the first results at the Council's next session.

As well, the Government must determine basic mechanisms to implement the project in the area of accessible housing. I shall it say directly – the situation is troubling and work on this project and forming a legal base for the market of accessible housing is, unfortunately, still going very slowly. Today around eighty percent of apartments are constructed by citizens' private funds. Their investments must be responsibly protected. I ask deputies and the Government to pay attention accordingly to this sensitive theme and understand that the destiny of thousands of families is affected by their decisions.

It is necessary that law enforcement agencies keep this issue under special and constant supervision.

Today the responsible ministers will report on the preparation for implementing priority national projects. And I would ask that they address the issues I have raised in more detail.

You know what I would like to say in conclusion: implementing plans within the so-called national projects cannot and should not act as a substitute for other plans to develop the economic and social sphere. Corresponding tasks to modernize education, health services and agriculture and many other areas are on a much greater scale than what we declared within the limits of these national projects. We will not be able to accomplish all tasks and solve all the problems in the country with just these projects. At the same time, modern Russia's favourable economic conditions allow us to make large scale investments into improving citizens' quality of life today and have allowed us to address people's essential needs now. And I hope that these investments will be used rationally for the country's long-term development.

In the last few years, in the last five or six years, we have had a consistent economic policy. It is yielding visible results. External economic conditions have been favourable. All this enables us to show people what we have been doing for the past five years, and bring them tangible results. And it is only thus, only by working this way every day and every year can we receive the mandate of trust from the citizens of the Russian Federation to further carry out these policies.

Therefore I consider it very important that activities carried out within the framework of the national projects should be implemented and come to a successful end. Dmitry Anatolevich, I hope that you will manage to set up the appropriate work not only for those who have gathered here today in this room in the Kremlin, but also for our colleagues who work on location.

Please, the floor is yours.

Dmitry Medvedev:

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear colleagues!

The President has put large scale and crucial tasks before us. It is the Government's direct responsibility to create strategies and accomplish them from the very beginning, having defined a system which will allow us to evaluate the productivity of each stage of the projects' implementation.

As the President just said, the first results must occur in the very near future. In particular, this means that already by the beginning of next year the appropriate categories of medical workers and teachers should receive the full amount of the payments due on time. Therefore it is very important that the Government and other bodies both in the centre and in the regions participating in implementing priority national projects work at a fast pace from the very beginning.

Certain first organizational steps in this direction have already been taken. Let me point out the constructive cooperation between the Government and the State Duma in preparing next year's federal budget.

In his speech, the President stated the basic figures. I shall add that following the initiative by members of parliament the funds allocated to all four projects have considerably increased. The deputies actively participated in developing the concrete mechanisms through which these projects will be implemented. In practical terms, cooperation between different authorities, self-governing institutions, leading political forces and communities of experts and businesses is being set up. And here I consider it necessary to use the possibilities offered by the Council and its bodies' to the maximum. Each month the Council Presidium, which includes besides Cabinet members the leadership of the Presidential Executive Office and the houses of the Federal Assembly, will monitor projects and discuss problematic issues that require coordination between departments, as And finally, interdepartmental working groups for each project led by federal ministers will be created for cooperation at the level of operations under the Council. Chairmen of committees from both houses of parliament, representatives of regional authorities and municipal establishments, of public organisations and business circles will take part in the work. Such a framework will create conditions for efficient cooperation between all the projects' participants, so that all constructive proposals can be heard and implemented.

I shall especially emphasize that civil society must be well informed about the Council's work and the work of other bodies engaged in implementing priority national projects. On the one hand, it is extremely important that citizens are aware of the projects as they are implemented and understand the new opportunities available to them while, on the other hand, their direct involvement in this activity is also extremely important. Only the interested and conscious participation of citizens can guarantee the real success of these Tasks that should be solved in the near future were discussed at the Presidium's first session. Corresponding decisions were taken on behalf of the President. In the first quarter of next year deliveries of diagnostic equipment and preparation to purchase instruments for emergency medical help will begin. Here we will be certainly oriented towards purchasing modern competitive technology and equipment, first and foremost from domestic manufacturers.

The Government plans to make a decision in the near future regarding criteria for selection of universities, schools, best teachers and talented youth to provide them with state support. In addition, it will support agricultural producers and a number of other categories.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to your order, in the near future in a meeting with Gazprom we shall consider the programme that will be implemented in the Russian regions in the next three years to provide the country with gas infrastructure.

Regarding the project 'Accessible and Comfortable Housing', in two years more than one hundred and ten thousand young families should have the opportunity to improve their living conditions, including using mortgage credits. Having private accommodation at the beginning of adult life offers the opportunity to have a family, raise children and is an Allocating building plots at the level of municipalities should allow an increase in the volume of housing construction by 2007 by more than a third in comparison with 2004. This must create conditions to equalize supply and demand in the housing market, something that is very important. In accordance with the President's direct instructions, work on this project should be accelerated.

Special attention should be given to the preparation of statutory acts in the housing sphere. This is an important issue and, Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to your instructions we shall work on this every day since without statutory acts we cannot even begin the preliminary stage of implementing the project.

I shall touch on the way cooperation with the regions is organized, and on issues related to the projects' implementation monitoring. We shall also pay special attention to this. The first and necessary condition is quality planning and defining the precise procedures by which all of the projects' participants shall cooperate. This is reflected in the network schedules that were approved by the session of the college in enlarged format and released today at our session. Probably working schedules should be modified according to the decisions taken today.

The second issue is organizing how the projects will be monitored and supervised. Certainly, it is the system's most important component. And here we plan to use modern administrative and information technology, including technologies that enable us to supervise the projects' execution in an electronic way. From the very beginning the so-called project approach was proposed to achieve the specific goals described by the President in the required time frame. However, now quarterly reports and supervision indicators must be confirmed in the near future. This will complete the formation of a comprehensive system of supervision for each project, both by the federal ministries and in the regions. Their achievement should also be supervised in an appropriate way.

I would also like to emphasize that such control must be absolutely effective, and therefore technologically sound. It should not disturb normal daily work, transforming it into bureaucratic red tape. The cooperation between the ministries and regional bodies must be organized according to the agreements they have signed where all procedures should be precisely written out. Thus it is expedient to examine the mechanism for effective reporting on the progress of concrete projects, including the structure, order and time for sending reports and the list of officials responsible for executing the projects' various stages, in the Council Presidium.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear colleagues!

It is obvious that successfully completing the said tasks depends on the cohesion of our actions and a systemic approach towards accomplishing the work by all the participants. We shall try to do all that is necessary to make sure that the steps undertaken are verified, coordinated and sequential, so that their results are felt by all Russian citizens, and give a new impulse not only to modernizing the country's most important branches of industry but to each person developing their own potential and possibilities.

Thank you for your attention.