Russian government website, 8/27/24

Mikhail Mishustin: “The tasks are significant and complex, requiring substantial resources. To keep the budget balanced, careful planning is essential to ensure funds are used efficiently and yield specific results.”

Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today, we are finalising the creation of a new portfolio of national projects for the next six years. The initial concepts emerged at the end of last year, immediately following the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. The process of defining specific areas of activity for the future documents began in accordance with the objectives set out in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly and the May executive order.

In this process, not only the heads of relevant departments were involved, but also a diverse group of experts, including representatives from the business sector, scientific and expert communities, the Federal Assembly, and the regions.

As a result, 19 projects were developed, each with ambitious goals for our country’s development through the end of the current decade, along with a detailed list of those responsible and project overseers.

The President also addressed key approaches in this area during yesterday’s meeting. He stressed the importance of evaluating how each decision, event, and legal amendment contributes to achieving the national development goals.

I will highlight the most crucial projects that deserve our focused attention. These include Family, Infrastructure for Life, Long and Active Life, and, of course, Youth and Children. These projects encompass essential decisions aimed at enhancing the lives of our citizens. They are designed to improve the quality of the environment in communities, address demographic challenges, and provide support for motherhood and childhood, as well as improve the healthcare and education systems, and housing availability.

Implementing these projects will enable the construction of thousands of new schools, kindergartens, and sports facilities, as well as major renovations of cultural and higher education institutions. It will also support the ongoing modernisation of housing and utility services, improve public transportation, road conditions, and advance the landscaping of various areas.

A priority was given to achieving technological leadership, which is of vast importance in the current situation, where a number of states are still a source of external challenges and unfriendly actions.

There are nine national projects aimed at reaching this goal. Within the next few years, Russia must continue to work pro-actively to create a technological and production base of its own. In the chemical industry, for example, dozens of new technological chains should emerge before the end of this decade. In the composites, over 15 production facilities and 60 products are expected to be added. The output of drones should be increased five-fold.

As for the transport sector, it should provide people with extensive opportunities for wayfaring and business and private travel in a comfortable environment and at affordable prices. Businesses, at the same time, should have enough funds for effective freight transportation. For this purpose, the share of Russian-made aircraft in the national fleet should constitute no less than 50 percent by the end of the current decade.

We will do this within the framework of national projects, including Means of Production and Automation, New Materials and Chemistry, Transport Mobility, New Health-Saving Technologies, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, and others.

These solutions should help our country both to meet the existing challenges and continue the in-depth transformation of the Russian economy, primarily with an eye to shaping a supply-side economy, with its non-resource component on the upgrade. By 2030, we will have to increase the share of gross value-added in real terms and the manufacturing industry’s production index by no less than 40 percent on 2022. Yet another goal is to ensure that Russia is one of the top ten world leaders in R&D and to increase the domestic spending on these purposes to no less than 2 percent of the GDP.

It is also necessary to increase the share of domestically produced hi-tech goods and services created on the basis of Russian innovations in the overall volume of their consumption by 50 percent and the earnings of small-sized technological companies – by no less than 600 percent as compared with last year’s level. Economic growth should be accompanied with a rise in people’s wellbeing and increased industrial earnings, a build-up in private investment, definitive solution of the personnel shortage problem, and introduction of a modern governance model based on Big Data. The Effective and Competitive Economy, Personnel, Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State, and Tourism and Hospitality Industry national projects are aimed at reaching these objectives.

In this area, by the end of the decade, 40 percent of medium-sized and large enterprises in basic non-resource industries, as well as all state and municipal social sphere organisations will need to be involved in the implementation of projects aimed at increasing labour productivity. This is in order to create favourable conditions for small and medium-sized businesses to develop tourist infrastructure, build new federal year-round resorts and adopt state-of-the-art platform solutions and services for public administration, benefiting people and businesses.

Colleagues,

The tasks are significant and complex, requiring substantial resources. To keep the budget balanced, careful planning is essential to ensure funds are used efficiently and yield specific results.

Today, we will discuss in detail our priorities and the financial component because we have little time for adjustments.

I want to remind you of what the President said during yesterday’s meeting. National projects should not include insignificant, non-working items that serve only bureaucratic purposes, but should instead focus on producing real results and practical, positive changes in people’s lives.

As early as in September the entire portfolio of new national projects should be submitted to the Presidential Council for Strategic Development. Please, keep this in mind as we proceed.