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#21 - JRL 2008-76 - JRL Home
Kremlin.ru
www.Kremlin.Ru
April 14, 2008
Excerpts from Transcript of [Putin] Meeting with the Government Cabinet
The Kremlin, Moscow

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov on support and development measures for small and medium businesses

ALEXANDER ZHUKOV: The Government Commission for the Development of Small and Medium Business has held its first meeting and examined a series of measures to support and development these kinds of businesses.

What do these measures involve primarily? First, they simplify the procedures involved in starting up a small business.

Second, they reduce the administrative load on small businesses.

Third, they offer state support in the form of financing and loans for small businesses.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Alexander Dmitriyevich [Zhukov], issues such as rent, ownership, and getting connected to the energy networks are of vital importance.

ALEXANDER ZHUKOV: Absolutely right. The plan contains several dozen measures, but it’s impossible to list them all now. The things you just mentioned are absolutely vital and the plan sets out measures to make it easier and cheaper for small businesses to get connected to the energy networks.

The meeting expressed its support for three draft laws of primary importance. The first makes it easier for small businesses to privatise the premises in which they operate. This draft law has already gone through its first reading in the State Duma.

The second draft law aims to prevent the possibility of administrative violations during inspections of small businesses.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Interior Ministry and municipal officials think up all manner of nonsense in an effort to squeeze money out of small businesses. They change all sorts of little details every month, and it is all these little details that add up to form what we call unfavourable conditions for doing business.

Laws cannot be retroactive. This is a common principle that needs to apply to the work of municipal institutions too. The regulations they set are not laws; they are bylaws, but they are just as important for small businesses as the laws passed by the state Duma are for big business.

ALEXANDER ZHUKOV: Another very important issue is the use in small and medium businesses of control and cash register technology that operates on the principle of imputed revenue. The commission supported a draft law according to which control and cash register technology would not be used in this case.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov on nanotechnology, bus production, and an upcoming Marine Collegium meeting

SERGEI IVANOV: The Government Council for Nanotechnology will meet tomorrow to examine state corporation Rosnanotechnology’s preparations for the selection of concrete nanotechnology industry projects.

The corporation’s main task is to put in place the conditions for mass production of goods manufactured using nanotechnology. The main instrument will be co-financing by the state corporation on the one hand, and the enterprise, whatever its type of ownership, on the other.

Since April 1, the state corporation has already received several hundred financing proposals. The corporation has already put in place a mechanism for sifting through these proposals.

We will also be looking at Rosnanotechnology’s relations with sector leaders such as Roscosmos, Rosatom, and the United Aircraft Corporation. And we will look at the state corporation’s support for small and medium businesses working on science-intensive technology. We do not want to focus only on the big players but want to create opportunities for small and medium businesses engaged not in trade but in the production of science-intensive goods and in scientific work.

On Wednesday I will visit the Likinsky Bus Factory in the Moscow Region. This factory produces 62 percent of buses with big passenger capacity in Russia ­ around 7,000 buses a year. The Government Commission for Industry, Transport and Technology will examine the Russian automobile industry overall at its meeting later this month.

On Friday, I will take part in a meeting of the Marine Collegium, at which we will examine the protection or justification of our external borders on the Arctic continental shelf, and the future for exploring and developing the shelf.

The second item on the agenda will be steps to improve the processing of traffic in our sea ports, an area in which we have many problems, even a real mess, to put it bluntly. We need to ensure that container and transit goods are processed rapidly through our ports. Currently there are big delays and this comes at a big cost for the economy.

The third item on the agenda will be measures to improve and develop diving in Russia.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I would like you to organise a meeting to examine in detail the development of the shipbuilding industry. We need to review what has been done of late in terms of legislation, administrative and financial measures, and outline our next steps in this area.

SERGEI IVANOV: Together with the corporation [the United Shipbuilding Corporation].

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Yes, yes, of course. We need to look at how the corporation is developing and what kind of support it needs over the coming period.

Economic Development and Trade Minister Elvira Nabiullina on a tender for selecting venture projects

ELVIRA NABIULLINA: We are now holding the second tender for bids from Russian venture companies to receive funds to support their projects. Last year, the first tender resulted in the formation of two funds with state participation of 49 percent and private companies contributing 51 percent. The funds have total capitalisation of 6 billion roubles and have already begun financing venture projects. Twenty bids have already come in so far for the second tender. We are putting up a total of nine billion roubles in state support.

We see the Russian venture company as one of the key elements in the infrastructure for supporting innovation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on steps to carry out the President’s instructions on public-sector wage increases

ALEXEI KUDRIN: In accordance with the Government Instruction, all public sector employees are entitled to a wage increase as from February 1…

VLADIMIR PUTIN: They are entitled to it, but have they actually received the money?

ALEXEI KUDRIN: The funds have been transferred, but some agencies have had delays in putting the wage increase instructions into effect.

Practically all the country’s regions have approved the necessary decisions. We have concluded agreements with all the regions on the financial support needed to fund this increase. Where necessary, we have provided the resources under the corresponding conditions.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Am I correct in understanding that the money needed for this public sector pay rise has already been transferred from the federal budget to the regions?

ALEXEI KUDRIN: These transfers will take place over the course of the entire year. In the regions where funds were needed in February and March, the money has already been transferred in full.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: But have the public sector employees actually received this money?

ALEXEI KUDRIN: Practically all of them have.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Yes, but all the same, if I have understood you correctly, some ministries and agencies have not prepared all the required documents in time?

ALEXEI KUDRIN: Yes.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: But even in cases where there have been delays, even in those ministries and agencies, I can assume that the employees will receive all of the money owed for the period starting on February 1.

ALEXEI KUDRIN: Yes, they will receive it.

VLADIMIR PUTIN (addressing Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov): Viktor Alexeyevich, please be aware that the agencies that have had delays of this sort need to put decisions into effect more promptly.