Medvedev interviewed on social issues in south Russia
Interfax
February 6, 2008
First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said the government will continue to support agriculture, and investment in this sector of economy will only grow, Interfax reported on 2 February. Medvedev was speaking to journalists from the Southern Federal District.
He reminded them that the government had adopted a comprehensive programme for the development of agriculture for many years ahead.
Asked about possible damage to the country's agriculture if Russia joins the WTO, Medvedev said: "We have announced our positions, and the (agriculture) minister and his colleagues are defending them. We will sort this out. There is nothing to worry about, I am absolutely sure."
Among recent positive changes, Medvedev named an increase in wages in agriculture, which are growing faster than in cities.
Medvedev said the countryside needed more jobs and houses. There have been first good results and young families have started returning to the villages, he said.
Since the launch of the national project "Affordable and comfortable housing", the number of Russian people who are capable of resolving their accommodation problems independently has doubled and reached 20 per cent, Medvedev said. He welcomed the fact that this category was growing. "The creation of the middle class who can buy houses is a very important task," he said.
He also noted that the state must not forget the construction of municipal houses which should be allocated to public sector workers on preferential terms.
Medvedev said that in 2008 the government was planning to issue R500bn worth of mortgages.
"I believe that in several years, - five, seven or ten, - we will be able to make sure that 60-65 per cent of the population - as in the most developed countries - will be able to resolve their housing problem independently," Medvedev said.
Speaking about regional issues, Medvedev said the government could consider building the second line of the Volgodon canal and the Evraziya project, which would link the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov. He also spoke about the gasification of five mountain regions of Dagestan and promised that work would start in 2008 or early 2009.