One of the bodies with a special status, headed by the President of Russia, is State Council of the Russian Federation.
It was formed in 2000.
State Council of the Russian Federation- an advisory body that facilitates the implementation of the powers of the head of state on issues of ensuring the coordinated functioning and interaction of bodies state power.
The body is formed by the President of Russia. In addition to the chairman of the council, it includes members. There is also a secretary who is not part of the body. These responsibilities are assigned by the Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation to one of the assistants to the President of the Russian Federation. Now it's
Members of the State Council of the Russian Federation are:
- Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation;
- Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation;
- plenipotentiary representatives of the President of the Russian Federation in federal districts;
- senior officials (heads of the highest executive bodies of state power) of the constituent entities of the federation;
- heads of factions in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation;
- may include other persons who have held positions of senior officials (heads of the highest executive bodies of state power) of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and who have great experience public (state and public) activities.
The main tasks of the council are:
- assistance in the implementation of the powers of the President of the Russian Federation on issues of ensuring the coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies;
- discussion of problems of special national importance relating to the relationship between the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the federation, the most important issues of state building and strengthening the foundations of federalism, making the necessary proposals to the President of the Russian Federation;
- discussion of issues related to the implementation (compliance) by federal government bodies, government bodies of the constituent entities of the federation, local government bodies, their officials of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, decrees and orders of the President of Russia, decrees and orders of the Government of the Russian Federation, and the introduction relevant proposals to the President of Russia;
- assistance to the President of the Russian Federation in his use of conciliation procedures to resolve disagreements between government bodies of the Russian Federation and government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as between government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
- consideration, at the proposal of the President of Russia, of draft federal laws and decrees of the President of the Russian Federation that are of national importance;
- discussion of the draft federal law on the federal budget;
- discussion of information from the Government of the Russian Federation on the progress of execution of the federal budget;
- discussion of the main issues of personnel policy in the Russian Federation;
- discussion, at the proposal of the President of Russia, of other issues of great national importance.
Organizationally State Council of the Russian Federation as follows.
The key role in the activities of the council is played by its chairman. In addition to forming the personal composition of the State Council and its bodies, he:
- determines the place and time of meetings of the State Council of the Russian Federation and its presidium;
- presides over meetings of the council and presidium;
- forms, on the basis of proposals from members of the presidium, a work plan for the State Council and the agenda of its next meeting;
- gives instructions to the members and secretary of the State Council of the Russian Federation.
A considerable burden falls on the secretary, who:
- ensures the preparation of a draft work plan for the council, draws up draft agendas for its meetings, organizes the preparation of materials for meetings, as well as draft relevant decisions;
- informs members of the State Council about the place, time and agenda of the next meeting, provides them with the necessary materials;
- signs minutes of meetings of the State Council of the Russian Federation;
- is responsible for ensuring the activities of the council;
- organizes the work of the advisory commission and ensures the activities of permanent and temporary commissions and working groups created by the State Council of the Russian Federation and the Presidium;
- carries out other assignments of the Chairman of the State Council.
Today the council has 100 members, plus a chairman and secretary.
In order to resolve operational issues, a Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation consisting of 9 council members. In particular, he considers the work plan of the State Council, as well as the agenda of the next meeting and materials for it. The personal composition of the presidium is determined by the President of the Russian Federation and is subject to rotation every six months. Meetings are usually held at least once every 3 months.
Advisory Commission provides consulting assistance to members of the State Council and Presidium on issues included in the work plan of the State Council of the Russian Federation. The difference between the advisory commission and other bodies of the State Council is that its members participate in the work of the council.
To prepare materials on issues that are expected to be considered at a meeting of the State Council of the Russian Federation or its presidium, permanent and temporary commissions and working groups are created. Selected species work can be performed by scientists and specialists on a contract basis.
Meetings of the State Council are held regularly, as a rule, at least 3 times a year. By decision of the chairman, extraordinary meetings may be held.
Clause 1 of the Regulations on the State Council of the Russian Federation (approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated September 1, 2000 No. 1602).
Clause 7 of the Regulations on the State Council of the Russian Federation (approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 1, 2000 No. 1602).
Clause 4 of the Regulations on the State Council of the Russian Federation (approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated September 1, 2000 No. 1602).
Clause 9 of the Regulations on the State Council of the Russian Federation (approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated September 1, 2000 No. 1602).
PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
About the State Council of the Russian Federation
Document with changes made:
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of June 28, 2005 N 736 (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, N 28, 07/11/2005);
(Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, No. 9, 02/26/2007);
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of March 12, 2010 N 303 (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, N 11, 03/15/2010);
(Official Internet portal of legal information www.pravo.gov.ru, 07/12/2012);
(Official Internet portal of legal information www.pravo.gov.ru, 08/13/2012);
(Official Internet portal of legal information www.pravo.gov.ru, 04/09/2014);
(Official Internet portal of legal information www.pravo.gov.ru, November 22, 2016, N 0001201611220044).
____________________________________________________________________
In order to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of public authorities, guided by Article 85 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as on the basis of proposals from members of the Federation Council and deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
I decree:
1. Form the State Council of the Russian Federation.
2. Approve the attached Regulations on the State Council of the Russian Federation.
3. This Decree comes into force from the date of its signing.
The president
Russian Federation
V.Putin
I. General provisions
1. The State Council of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the State Council) is an advisory body that promotes the implementation of the powers of the head of state on issues of ensuring the coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies.
2. The State Council in its activities is guided by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, decrees and orders of the President of the Russian Federation, as well as these Regulations.
3. The regulations on the State Council are approved by the President of the Russian Federation.
4. The main tasks of the State Council are:
assistance in the implementation of the powers of the President of the Russian Federation on issues of ensuring the coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies;
discussion of problems of special national importance relating to the relationship between the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the most important issues of state building and strengthening the foundations of federalism, making the necessary proposals to the President of the Russian Federation;
discussion of issues related to the execution (compliance) by federal government bodies, government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local government bodies, their officials of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, decrees and orders of the President of the Russian Federation, decrees and orders of the Government of the Russian Federation Federation, and making appropriate proposals to the President of the Russian Federation;
assistance to the President of the Russian Federation in his use of conciliation procedures to resolve disagreements between state authorities of the Russian Federation and state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as between state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
consideration, at the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation, of draft federal laws and decrees of the President of the Russian Federation that are of national importance;
discussion of the draft federal law on the federal budget;
discussion of information from the Government of the Russian Federation on the progress of execution of the federal budget;
discussion of the main issues of personnel policy in the Russian Federation;
discussion, at the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation, of other issues of great national importance.
5. The State Council is formed by the chairman of the State Council and members of the State Council.
The Chairman of the State Council and members of the State Council participate in its work on a voluntary basis.
6. The Chairman of the State Council is the President of the Russian Federation.
7. Members of the State Council are the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, authorized representatives of the President of the Russian Federation in the federal districts, senior officials (heads of the highest executive bodies of state power) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, heads of factions in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of August 10, 2012 N 1153.
By decision of the President of the Russian Federation, persons who have held positions of senior officials (heads of the highest executive bodies of state power) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and who have extensive experience in public (state and social) activities may be included in the State Council (paragraph as amended.
8. To resolve operational issues, a Presidium of the State Council is formed consisting of eight members of the State Council
(Paragraph as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated March 12, 2010 N 303 by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated April 9, 2014 N 220; as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated November 22, 2016 N 615.
The personal composition of the presidium is determined by the President of the Russian Federation and is subject to rotation once every six months.
The Presidium of the State Council considers the work plan of the State Council, as well as the agenda of its next meeting and materials for the meeting (paragraph as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated February 23, 2007 N 241.
The Presidium of the State Council analyzes the implementation of the work plan of the State Council and its decisions.
Meetings of the Presidium of the State Council are held as necessary, but, as a rule, at least once every three months.
(Paragraph as amended, put into effect by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 11, 2012 N 946.
8_1. To provide advisory assistance members of the State Council, the Presidium of the State Council on issues included in the work plan of the State Council, an advisory commission of the State Council is formed.
The personal composition of the advisory commission of the State Council is determined by the President of the Russian Federation.
By decision of the President of the Russian Federation, persons with experience in public (state and social) activities may be included in the advisory commission of the State Council.
Members of the advisory commission of the State Council participate in the work of the State Council.
Members of the advisory commission of the State Council participate in its work on a voluntary basis or on a paid basis.
(The paragraph was additionally included by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 23, 2007 N 241)
9. Chairman of the State Council:
determines the place and time of meetings of the State Council and its presidium;
presides over meetings of the State Council and its presidium;
forms, on the basis of proposals from members of the Presidium of the State Council, a work plan for the State Council and the agenda of its next meeting;
gives instructions to members of the State Council and the Secretary of the State Council.
10. The duties of the Secretary of the State Council are assigned by the Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation to one of the assistants to the President of the Russian Federation. The Secretary of the State Council is not included in its composition (clause as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of June 28, 2005 N 736.
11. Secretary of the State Council:
ensures the preparation of a draft work plan for the State Council, draws up draft agendas for its meetings, organizes the preparation of materials for meetings of the State Council, as well as draft relevant decisions;
informs members of the State Council about the place, time and agenda of the next meeting of the State Council, provides them with the necessary materials;
signs minutes of meetings of the State Council;
bears responsibility for ensuring the activities of the State Council;
organizes the work of the advisory commission of the State Council and ensures the activities of permanent and temporary commissions and working groups created by the State Council and the presidium of the State Council;
carries out other assignments of the Chairman of the State Council.
(Clause as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated February 23, 2007 N 241.
12. Members of the State Council make proposals to the Presidium of the State Council on the work plan of the State Council, the agenda of its meetings and the order of discussion of issues, participate in the preparation of materials for meetings of the State Council, as well as drafts of its decisions.
Members of the State Council do not have the right to delegate their powers to other persons.
13. The State Council, the Presidium of the State Council may create permanent and temporary commissions and working groups to prepare materials on issues that are expected to be considered at a meeting of the State Council or its presidium, and attract, in the prescribed manner, scientists and specialists to carry out certain work, including on a contractual basis (clause as amended by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated February 23, 2007 N 241.
14. The activities of the State Council are ensured by the relevant divisions of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.
15. Meetings of the State Council are held regularly, as a rule, at least three times a year. By decision of the Chairman of the State Council, extraordinary meetings of the State Council may be held.
(Paragraph as amended, put into effect by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 11, 2012 N 946.
A meeting of the State Council is valid if a majority of the total number of members of the State Council is present.
16. Meetings of the State Council are held, as a rule, in the Moscow Kremlin.
17. Decisions of the State Council are made at its meeting through discussion.
By decision of the Chairman of the State Council, voting can be held on any issue on the agenda.
The Chairman of the State Council also has the right to establish the procedure for making decisions on issues of special national importance by reaching consensus.
18. Decisions of the State Council are documented in a protocol signed by the Secretary of the State Council.
If necessary, decisions of the State Council are formalized by decrees, orders or instructions of the President of the Russian Federation.
If a decision is made on the need to adopt a federal constitutional law, a federal law or make changes to them, or to amend a draft federal constitutional law or a federal law, the draft relevant act is included in State Duma Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in accordance with the legislative initiative of the President of the Russian Federation.
Revision of the document taking into account
changes and additions prepared
JSC "Kodeks"
Insider sources about the Kremlin's plans for a global transformation of the political landscape
Rumors about the Kremlin’s plans to carry out a total restructuring and purge of the entire state mechanism have been circulating for a long time. It is impossible to assess the reliability of the information contained in this material - time itself will do that. However, if the author is right, in the near future we will actually have a new state, something like Soviet Union, something intermediate between a presidential and parliamentary republic, with a state plan, the KGB and the official opposition.
The FSB WILL BE REFORMED, STRENGTHENED AND STRENGTHENED
The news contained information about upcoming reforms.
I confirm.
This is being prepared. And for a long time already. (Don't forget who was the first to report National Guard Russia). (The author of the text - artemdragunov - is sure that it was he who was the first to know and report on the creation of the National Guard. - Ed.)
I'll tell you what I know.
The FSB will be reformed (as in the text - Ed.). Fortified, strengthened. I confirm this.
Whether the name will contain the word “Ministry” or the word “Committee” has not yet been decided. But the functions will be like those of the KGB. And the word Committee will also be introduced.
And there will probably be the phrase “State Security”.
Functions - foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, control of government services, protection of particularly important objects and subjects, internal security and all that.
I assume something like this: FSO, SVR, KGB, SVB (internal security service), GSK (state investigative committee), FSK (federal control service) and a number of other services.
An analogue of the Coast Guard Service (CSS) will be created as part of the Border Protection Service (border guards) within the Ministry of Security.
There is an option to create an airspace or sky protection service (SOVP - SON).
There is an option to create a water protection service (WSP).
The Ministry of Civil Defense (also the Ministry of Civil Security) will be created on the basis of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, rescue services, civil defense etc.
The tasks of the MGO are the creation and maintenance of civil defense infrastructure, rescue operations, safety control, etc. Up to the development of safety standards, etc.
There is an option to create a Civil Information Service (essentially warning, propaganda, etc.)
Although the Ministry of Defense has a plan for dividing the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which also has its advantages.
The decision will be made one of these days.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs will form a new patrol police service (PPS), criminal police service (UPS), customs service (FCS), migration service (FMS), traffic police service (SDP), SOPP (law enforcement service), etc. .
Most likely, all dispatch services will be transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a Control Service will be created (essentially Chamber of Accounts and OBKhSS).
The Russian Guard will most likely be reassigned directly to the president and his Presidential Security Service (SBP).
There is an option that this particular service will be called the KGB. Putin is now considering his options.
I admit the creation of the Presidential Guard, although the word President itself will soon disappear.
Most likely the scheme will be adopted:
Ministry - Federal Services- Management.
"HEAD" OR "CHAIRMAN"?
Most likely, a State Council will be created in Russia after the elections.
Led by the Chairman or the Head (the decision will be made very soon, but most likely the Head, since the Chairman is already reserved for the government).
In essence, the president will become the Head of the State Council.
The State Council is a structure based on the presidential administration and the Security Council. It will include part of the FSO and subordinate the Russian Guard.
Official name:
State Council of the Russian Federation. Or the State Council of Russia.
Accordingly - the Head of the State Council of the Russian Federation. Or the Chairman. But most likely the Chapter.
The position of Deputy Head of the State Council will be created. Essentially the vice president.
After the presidential elections, this position may be taken by Medved, and the government will be subject to rotation.
I accept a woman as the future head of government.
Putin is actively promoting women into power.
The presidential administration had thoughts of creating a united opposition party.
They are lobbying Yavlinsky as its leader. The non-systemic will be pushed out of the borders. The rest are shoved into corners.
By the next elections it will be created - a single opposition party. Now they will intensively drive everyone else to Yabloko, scaring them with screamers and freaks.
I admit the merger of Yabloko, GrPl, Parnas and Rost.
The name of the future party is not yet clear, but most likely there will be a merger with a composite name.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Liberal Democratic Party will be reformatted, and the leaders will soon be replaced. For one reason or another.
A fair Russia will be merged with the Motherland and the rest.
Right Russia is ideologically outside the niche.
The task is to create 5 or maximum 6 large parties with cross-control for each.
Therefore, a lot of the games will be squeezed out in favor of the serious, gloomy guys.
Most likely the LDPR will lose L.
She will soon have a new leader.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation does the same.
The template says:
United Russia is the party of power and workers - no less than 51%.
DPR - Democrats, business party (former LDPR and part of the Right Russia, liberal communists, etc.) - maximum 15%.
CPR - communists, pensioners, etc. (united communists and their convention) - maximum 15%.
SR-R is a party of patriots, essentially a right-wing party (a fair Russia, Motherland, pensioners, etc.) - about 10%.
OO (united opposition, apple, growth, gra platform, parnas, etc.) - no more than 10%.
IVF (greens, freaks, trifles, various things like that) - about 5%.
Over time, the CPR will be eroded, their electorate will dissolve.
By 2023, three major parties are planned: right, center, left.
And a couple of small but bright ultra- and freaks.
About Gosplan: state planning service - in the stage of preparation and creation.
Will be engaged in major planning, calculations, development of state plans synchronized with the elections of the Duma and the government.
About 5 or 6 years.
Rotation: mandatory rotation of bureaucrats at lower and middle levels every 5 or 6 years (synchronized with Duma elections).
Most likely, a five-year cycle will be adopted, with a single election day as the starting point.
The first new five-year plan will be adopted by 2021, when the State Council and other structures will already be formed. Then there will be a large rotation, etc.
Dmitry Medvedev and a number of government members took part in the meeting of the State Council.
The meeting participants considered the necessary measures to achieve the goals formulated in Presidential Decree No. 618 of December 21, 2017 “On the main directions of state policy for the development of competition.”
From the transcript:
V. Putin: Good afternoon, dear colleagues!
Today we have the first meeting of the State Council after the election of the President of the Russian Federation.
You know how large the challenges are facing the country. They demand that everyone be included in their decision as effectively as possible: civil society, business, and government authorities must work together. And of course, the efforts of all constituent entities of the Russian Federation are required.
Fair and honest competition is a basic condition for economic and technological development, the key to the country’s renewal.
The topic of our meeting is the development of competition in the country. I want to say right away that this is one of the key areas of our work. Without solving problems in this area, we will not do anything with you; none of the tasks can be achieved.
Let me emphasize once again that the fundamental importance of competition is defined by the Constitution of Russia. And this direction is one of the main ones, as I have already said, for achieving the goals that were mentioned in the Message.
I'll start with legal regulation in this area. In general, it meets international standards. In recent years, four packages of antimonopoly laws have been adopted. The main thing is to ensure their proper enforcement practices.
So far, unfortunately, in the field of competition there are many cases of direct disregard for laws, especially on the part of local authorities.
Look what is happening in practice. In the total number of violations of antimonopoly legislation by federal authorities in 2017, the number of general violations was 1.2 percent, and by regional and municipal authorities - 98.8 percent. What does this mean: that the country does not attach due importance to this. We think that this is some kind of nonsense, that it’s no big deal, we need to please our loved ones, relatively speaking, our companies - state unitary enterprises, municipal unitary enterprises, I’ll say more about this.
In fact, the damage to the country's economy is colossal. We just don’t feel it, we don’t feel it, but it’s big.
Now the FAS is preparing the fifth legislative package, but along with the legislation, the management logic must also change. I consider the most important task to be the implementation of so-called pro-competitive approaches in the activities of government bodies.
However, such approaches based on promoting competition are rarely used. The reason is the usual, established image, style of bureaucratic thinking, the lack of desire to build an economy of state or municipal order that is beneficial to both the region and its residents.
It’s easier, as I already said, to work with your own state unitary enterprises and municipal unitary enterprises than to choose effective performers in a competitive market. Such actions lead to an increase in budget expenditures, preserving backward production and low quality products. Ultimately, consumers, that is, Russian citizens, suffer from this.
What I would like to especially note is that government agencies and companies with state participation occupy those niches where small and medium-sized businesses could operate, and in fact they are pushing them out of the markets and monopolizing these markets. As a result, there is a process of cartelization of competitive sectors of the economy, and entrepreneurial initiative and incentives to start a business are undermined.
People believe that they have little chance of breaking into markets heavily occupied by state-owned enterprises and companies with state participation, and that it is difficult to obtain state or municipal orders in an honest, competition. After all, government agencies and companies with state participation have completely different lobbying and financial capabilities. And their access to loans is also much easier. Yes, and there are technologies to play trades in your favor, there are enough of them, and we know how they work.
For reference: in 2017, 675 cases of anti-competitive agreements were initiated, of which 360 were cases of cartels. This is eight percent more than in the previous 2016, and the leadership here is held by the construction sector for the second year in a row, by the way.
We have already discussed these problems more than once and made a number of decisions, in particular on expanding access for small businesses and socially oriented NPOs to fulfilling state and municipal orders and services. Apparently this is not enough. I would like to hear how things stand now and what specific measures are planned to be taken.
It is also necessary to create a unified register of state and municipal property with complete information about the rights to it, encumbrances and intended purposes and, while this work is underway, to intensify the identification of unaccounted for or inefficiently used real estate and land plots.
The topic is also far from new, but, unfortunately, there is no real progress here yet. In this regard, I propose that at one of the State Councils we discuss in detail the issues of increasing the efficiency of management of state and municipal property.
Since 2015, the regions have begun to implement the competition development standard approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. For a number of subjects of the Federation, this became a real incentive to support competition. This is true, we see it. But in the country as a whole, systemic changes for the better have not happened.
Last December, a Decree was issued in which promoting the development of competition is identified as a priority area in the work of government bodies, and the National Plan for 2018–2020 outlines specific industries and expected indicators for the development of competition in them.
I believe that the same subject guidelines need to be determined for each region - of course, this should be done together with the subjects of the Federation, taking into account their characteristics and capabilities. Thus, regional teams will have clear indicators for creating a competitive environment, as well as obligations to develop private enterprises in the territories’ priority markets, including new, digital, and so on.
I would like to highlight another important problem – the tendency towards the development of so-called regional protectionism. The motives for such actions are clear: the regions are striving to create favorable conditions for local producers and simplify their access to the market.
Meanwhile, I want you to hear everything now, a local producer means Russian, not some kind of “leavened” product, this is extremely important. And we observe such regional protectionism even among those regions that are at the forefront and show good results development. This is absolutely unacceptable. I draw your attention to this.
I agree that regional preferences can and should be used to support business, and therefore to increase employment and incomes of residents, to replenish the budget. However, it is one thing when benefits are equally available to everyone, and quite another when deliberately discriminatory restrictions are created for entrepreneurs from other regions or bans on the import of goods are introduced.
This directly contradicts the principle of the unity of the country’s economic space. Such greenhouse conditions distort and distort the competitive environment for their own people.
I will add that, having received artificial advantages, such companies in the long term, of course, and you understand this perfectly well, will lose their efficiency and impose, and you will be forced to impose, low-quality goods at inflated prices or low-level services.
In this regard, I would like to emphasize two fundamental things.
First. All our steps to support industries and companies, including within the framework of import substitution, should encourage efficiency and the production of modern competitive goods and services that are in demand both in the domestic and international markets.
And second. It is necessary to look at the state of the markets as a whole, to take into account the prospects for demand, so that exclusive conditions for projects and investors in some regions do not hold back or have a negative impact on the development of similar, also successful, enterprises in other regions of the Russian Federation.
Here we need to look for and find a balance, to ensure fair, equal competition. I am convinced that with competent management approaches there will be enough work for everyone.
I repeat, for the breakthrough development of the country it is critical to ensure economic freedoms and a high level of competition. Yes, a lot depends on the state, on all levels of government. But in shaping the business climate, entrepreneurial culture and fair competition practices, of course, business itself plays a huge role.
It is clear that profit is the main and main priority for business. But this should not be achieved at any cost. And you know why I’m talking about this today, why is the responsibility of business both to people and to society so important? So, we need honest, conscientious work by entrepreneurs. You can’t be temporary workers and only care about your own well-being. We have big tasks and big goals ahead.
I believe that the business community understands how important its contribution to the breakthrough development of the country is. And once again I want to appeal to everyone: we don’t have time for swinging!
Word to Alexander Vladimirovich Brechalov. Please.
A. Brechalov: Thank you.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear members of the State Council, invited!
The topic of competition is extremely complex and multifaceted. This is not the first year we have been discussing it on different levels and events.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, in your Address to the Federal Assembly on March 1 of this year, you noted that the country has accumulated significant technological potential. It will make it possible to make a real breakthrough in the quality of life of people, modernization of the economy, infrastructure and public administration.
We believe that the most important condition for such a breakthrough is achieving a high level of competition in key areas of the economy. Competition is a kind of resource. And so far, in our opinion, this resource is underutilized.
In general, it is important to ensure a competitive approach in state and municipal management when solving socio-economic problems, and to more actively use the project method for this. It is already used in implementation priority projects, but it needs to be implemented more widely at all levels of government.
As part of the preparation of the report, we tried to take a comprehensive approach to the problem of developing competition, first of all, we studied the legislation and came to the need to synchronize program documents. As a result, three levels of the competition development system have been identified.
The first level is Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 21, 2017 No. 618 “On the main directions of state policy for the development of competition.” It is of a strategic nature; this Decree approved the National Competition Development Plan for 2018–2020, which is a medium-term plan for the development of competition at the federal level, and provides key indicators for the development of competition for the next three years.
The second level includes a federal roadmap for the development of competition in sectors of the economy and a standard for the development of competition in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The National Plan instructs the Federal Government to approve action plans to develop competition in sectors of the economy of the Russian Federation by July 1, 2018.
At the same time, these plans must be implemented into a single road map approved by the Government. The unified roadmap must also be adopted before July 1, 2018 and take into account the updating of the standard for the development of competition in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
The third level includes regional roadmap action plans for the development of competition in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. In each region of the country, existing action plans must be updated or new action plans must be adopted, and they must take into account changes that will be made to the competition development standard.
Of course, regions can proactively make changes to their plans, taking into account Presidential Decree No. 618 and the National Plan approved by him, until the competition development standard is appropriately adjusted at the federal level. For example, in Udmurtia, work has already been carried out as a matter of priority to update the republican system documents. The list of priority markets has been supplemented by the areas provided for by the National Plan: this is the road market, freight transportation, IT services, and the agricultural sector as a whole.
Returning to the system documents, it is important to note that regional action plans for the development of competition must be carried out by the authorities of the constituent entities of the Federation in cooperation with local governments. At the same time, municipalities can approve their action plans, adopted in cooperation with the authorities of the subject. Periodically, but not less than every five years, program documents of state policy on the development of competition should be updated.
Separately, I would like to emphasize that in order to achieve the goals of the Presidential Decree and the National Plan approved by him, as well as to implement regional action plans for the development of competition, incentive and motivational measures must be provided for the regions, including financial ones. Along with this, the application of sanctions should be provided for officials of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local government bodies who do not ensure the achievement of key indicators for the development of competition.
But writing documents is only half the battle; as we know, it is necessary to get rid of the formal approach to their implementation, which takes place at all levels. For example, the implementation of the competition development standard as a whole made it possible to formulate a uniform approach of government authorities to solving this problem, to identify a number of effective and effective measures on the development of competition.
But not everything is so simple. I'll tell you about my region. In the Udmurt Republic, the standard has been implemented since 2015, and already in the first year almost all of its components were implemented. Moreover, in individual markets during this time significant results, or rather the value of indicators, were achieved. Unfortunately, in practice this does not always mean an increase in the level of competition and effective development of a particular industry.
By the way, based on the results of 2016, Udmurtia ranks 22nd in the ranking of regions for implementing the standard. But sometimes formal figures do not reflect the real state of affairs. Thus, often state and municipal institutions are simply transferred to joint-stock companies with 100% state participation. Formally, the state unitary enterprise or municipal unitary enterprise is closed, on paper the indicator has been met, but in fact nothing has changed.
In our region there are 138 organizations with state and municipal participation, and this is not counting autonomous and budgetary institutions. Their annual revenue is more than 23 billion rubles, and they bring only 15 million rubles a year from property management to the consolidated budget of the republic. Almost all enterprises are, so to speak, planned to be unprofitable. I think comments are unnecessary here.
Of course, there are also successful examples of implementing the standard both in our region and in many others. For example, in Moscow, benefits have been established for private educational organizations rental of buildings and structures; a supplier portal has been created, an online platform on which information about all purchases is posted. IN Lipetsk region fee for participation in regional fairs has been canceled retail.
We also looked at what principles the main regional markets operate on and what the main problems are. One of the most pressing problems is the state monopolization of the economy, or, more simply, the dominance of state and municipal enterprises and the reluctance to privatize property.
If we look at the numbers, then, colleagues, according to Rosstat, more than 300 thousand organizations with state or municipal participation operate in competitive markets. This is a very significant number. Above I already gave an example of the situation with the so-called state unitary enterprises and municipal unitary enterprises in Udmurtia. I am sure that the picture is similar in most other regions.
Another hot topic is the unwillingness of government customers to work with small businesses. Until there are clear measurable requirements for indicators, it will not be possible to get rid of the formal approach. We know how currently positive statistics are often drawn regarding the implementation of the mandatory share of participation of small businesses in government procurement.
This issue should be approached with special attention, because we should not forget that the National Plan provides for an increase by 2020 in the share of purchases, the participants of which are small businesses and socially oriented non-profit organizations, no less than twice as much as in 2017.
In preparing the report, we took into account the opinion and experience of the country's leading business associations, as well as federal corporations for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Already, there are many mechanisms that help simplify the access of small businesses to auctions. This is, for example, the SME Business Navigator portal, developed by the SME Corporation, where, among other things, any entrepreneur can access the procurement plans of the largest companies. There are many such examples.
Moreover, I believe that it is necessary to approve special lists of goods, works and services, the purchase of which for state and municipal needs should be carried out only from small businesses and only under direct contracts, and through tenders, the participants of which are small businesses. Similarly, provide a special list of services that will be purchased only from socially oriented non-profit organizations.
Now, summarizing what the constituent entities of the Russian Federation need to do to overcome the main problems that impede the development of competition in the regions.
First. It is necessary to clearly formulate the openness of regional authorities as the basis for any changes in the territory. This concerns, first of all, the fate of all regional and state assets. An example from the road sector in Udmurtia: we are uniting enterprises in the industry with state participation into one public joint-stock company and this year we plan to sell more than 50 percent on the open market. We expect to raise about three billion rubles, which we plan to use to repair rural roads. We have a lot of sections of impassable roads in the fall and spring.
Each of our actions is as open as possible, right up to publication in in social networks. As a result, for everyone: for business, for citizens - all government actions are accessible and open, right down to the final beneficiary. Real business trust in government is the foundation for the development of a transparent and efficient economy.
Second. Introduction of pro-competitive methods of state and municipal management.
Third. As for state unitary enterprises and municipal unitary enterprises, they must be gradually withdrawn from competitive regional markets. We believe that this, as well as the disposal of ineffective state property, should be done in the next four years. Again, using the example of the Udmurt Republic: more than 350 thousand hectares have not been put into economic circulation and are not used, more than a thousand objects are de jure ownerless, but at the same time the budget pays for heating, for maintenance, and so on.
Fourth. Regions need to update their action plans to develop competition.
Fifth. After key indicators for the development of competition are approved at the federal level, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation must decide on the sectors of the regional economy for which they accept obligations to achieve these key indicators, and strictly comply with them. We are talking about the minimum share of the presence of a privately owned organization in industries, in one or another sector of the economy. I really hope that this State Council and the decisions made as a result will become the starting point for a real change in the situation with the level of competition in the country.
Thank you for your attention.
V. Putin: Thank you.
Artemyev Igor Yurievich, please.
I. Artemyev: Dear participants of the State Council meeting!
Alexander Vladimirovich Brechalov spoke about the three levels of the competition support system being formed in Russia. I can only note that Decree No. 618, which laid the foundations for competition in our country, with the corresponding subparagraph “o” of paragraph three requires the appointment of measurable parameters for the regions and for federal authorities.
Accordingly, in this regard, the Government of the Russian Federation has developed a unified industry program for the development of competition in our country - these are ministerial programs that will be approved by the Government.
I would like to report that this program was submitted to the Government about two weeks ago, ahead of schedule, and contains programs from all ministries - from the Ministry of Energy to the Ministry of Health. Many times attempts have been made for the regions to formulate such solvable tasks. In particular, Government Decree No. 691 of 2009 set such a task, Government Decree No. 2529 of 2012, and finally, as Vladimir Vladimirovich, you said, in 2015 Government Decree No. 1738 approved the standard for the development of competition.
As already mentioned, unfortunately, no significant results were achieved. In this regard, the most important task is to formulate these indicators. And I would like to talk about them in more detail.
Firstly, in order for these to be indicators that governors and local governments could influence, we cleared the corresponding methodological approaches from federal companies and systems of natural monopolies. And these will be those companies that are under the control and capabilities of governors and local governments.
In addition, I would like to say that the methods proposed in accordance with the decisions proposed today, which should provide clear formulas for calculating certain digital indicators, should come into force on January 1 next year.
Respectively, next years, 2019, 2020 and 2021, will be the periods for the implementation of these indicators, and the methods must be approved by the Government of the Russian Federation before December 1 of this year.
Another very important point: All our regions are very diverse, so from the total number of indicators, which ended up being 42, you can select 80 percent of the indicators. Some people do not have ports, others cannot engage in aquaculture due to understandable climatic conditions, so this backlash is being made. You yourself will verify the 80 percent of indicators that are available to you.
The indicators themselves begin in the presentation. I will follow it and name the corresponding slides. We start with social sphere. For the first time, a figure of 10 percent is proposed in the most serious issues of the social sphere, such as, for example, the market for social services for disabled people and elderly citizens. We need to reach 10 percent. And, probably, these jobs and financial resources should be given primarily to organizations of the so-called third sector, as has already been discussed today.
Everyone knows well that disabled people best help other disabled people, diabetics know best how to help diabetics. This has long been a known truth in the world, but, unfortunately, in our country all this is mainly financed from the budget bypassing these organizations. This is what the notorious state unitary enterprises, municipal unitary enterprises and other organizations do.
Or, say, the drug retail market. We conducted a large analytical study in order to formulate these parameters. They are averages across regions: somewhere there may be a figure of 90 percent, in one of the regions, and for someone it may be zero. Therefore, if a figure of 20–30 percent arises, as, say, in the previous case, this means that we have chosen such a protective option for the regions, after all, quite cautious.
So, it is proposed that all regions reach the minimum, I emphasize, the minimum indicator of 60 percent. I repeat that there are regions with 100 percent, we are talking about pharmacies, pharmaceutical turnover. There are regions where, again, one or two state unitary enterprises, or even just one state unitary enterprise, are engaged in this.
Or, say, the medical services market. I would like to bring to your attention a small correction here. We state in our documents that this is 10 percent of the compulsory health insurance market. But after additional consultations, which we carried out until the last days with respected governors, it is worth writing not about the compulsory medical insurance market, but about the entire medical services market. This will be more correct.
If we further turn to the seventh slide, we will see the same reforms in education: an attempt to create in many regions the first private preschool educational institutions, secondary education institutions, secondary specialized education, higher education and so on. In particular, in the market for children’s recreation and health services, it is also better if there are not state unitary enterprises, but also on the basis of the same pioneer camps, as has already been created in many regions, so that these are private organizations.
About the agro-industrial complex. There have already been many government decisions on the need for additional efforts to gain independence, primarily in relation to the seed fund for our agriculture. We are very dependent on huge multinational corporations.
Here it is necessary to develop such services in the livestock breeding market - 20 percent, in the market for relevant laboratory tests for issuing veterinary accompanying documents, in the seed production market - 20 percent here everywhere. These are the first steps, but this certainly needs to be done.
Construction complex. It is very important here that construction projects of capital investment, it is assumed that approximately 80 percent of the work will be carried out by private contractors themselves. We mostly live in Moscow, so there are a lot of private companies here, and in many regions these are again state unitary enterprises, and this is completely wrong in the 21st century.
Or, let’s say, if we talk directly about housing construction, then the picture is approximately the same and the indicators are also 80 percent. In road construction this is also 80 percent. In architectural and construction design, 80 percent is also proposed, and in cadastral land management work, 80 percent is also proposed.
These are important indicators, but there is a caveat here. Moscow has one peculiarity, I mean the Federal Law “On Renovation,” which must be taken into account. The corresponding calculation of this coefficient will need to be made without taking this law into account.
Fishery complex. Our food security is the harvest of biological resources. It is necessary that Russian contractors catch 80 percent of the biological resources in our seas. This is also really important for national security. It is necessary to have 80 percent of subsequent processing, because today it is much less.
Commercial aquaculture – 80 percent.
And the next element is subsoil use of local importance. Here, too, crushed stone, sand and other general construction materials must be transferred Russian companies, and such private companies should be 80 percent of what is proposed.
Housing and communal services, heat supply - 20 percent.
Improvement of the urban environment, cleaning of territories, cleaning, and so on - 20 percent.
Carrying out work to maintain the housing stock. Here you will need to tweak the wording a little, but still 20 percent.
And, in fact, for municipal waste it will also be necessary to make a small remark in this version, but leave the same figure - 20 percent.
In power supply. Purchase and sale of electricity - 50 percent, other competitive markets in the energy sector - 30. If we take such an area as gas supply, then, for example, the supply of liquefied gas in bottles for the population, which is mainly purchased by villagers, is 50 percent.
I would like to note that we would also like to set the same coefficient in relation to the provision of metering devices for gas transportation equipment, by which we mean house meters: these are the meters that are installed at the entrances to houses. Many governors drew our attention to the fact that a connection is being made directly into the gas pipe. This is a very responsible matter. If we do not notice in time that the pressure in the gas system of the house is increasing, this can lead to corresponding explosions, so we were afraid of this indicator and propose to remove it today at this stage.
Again, the picture is very varied: somewhere, in many regions, already 30, 50 and even more percent are bought by private owners, transported under complex contracts in rain, snow, and mud. Actually, no special crisis situations arise. And there are regions where there is one “Passenger Autotrans” for the whole city or municipality, so it’s clear how it all works. There is not enough money from the budget to support this entire organization. Passenger taxi, related services for transporting passengers and luggage - 70 percent, and so on.
In industry, after privatization, which was carried out in individual sectors that we took, in general, the indicators will be clear to you: this is light industry (70 percent), and for construction, concrete and brick production (also 70 percent each), wood production ( also 70 percent). This is an indicator for many regions. It takes significant effort to achieve this.
Everything here is more or less good in the Internet and information communications system, but not everywhere. Therefore, we think 98 percent of broadband Internet access services should be provided by private companies.
We think that even in such a difficult matter as funeral services - we have “funeral” written down, but it would be more correct to write “ritual” - it is necessary that 20 percent of these services be provided by private companies.
Retail sales of petroleum products, I emphasize - without federal companies, as I have already said - 90 percent, outdoor advertising market - 100 percent. Achieving these indicators, of course, will lead to very serious opportunities for small businesses, and we propose, in addition to the measures that are in the legislation on public procurement, to add such an important thing as a register of types of work that are given only to small companies.
In Russia, only small companies should paint fences; they can probably do cleaning or turn out light bulbs, too, and they do an excellent job of it. Today, unfortunately, this is largely not the case.
The Small Business Support Fund, already mentioned, has done a lot of work here both in support and in creating a register of small companies. But we note that large companies are splitting up and even these small contracts are trying to be taken over.
I would like to say literally two words about the authorities themselves, which are widely represented here. Firstly, the Presidential Decree requires all of us to organize our work in such a way that in three years the number of offenses in the field of competition by the authorities themselves is halved. And, as Vladimir Vladimirovich already said today, 98 percent or more are regional violations today. And one of the elements of this work is preventive measures.
For example, when the relevant acts are being prepared at the federal level, we believe that as part of the regulatory impact assessment, which is organized and carried out by the Ministry of Economy, it is necessary to ask the question of how this or that regulatory act affects competition, so that later it does not have to be canceled, thus , interrupt some work and discriminate against the company in fact by authorities.
And, in fact, one of the latest topics, which is quite new for the FAS, is the so-called tariff discrimination. Today, in the same region under comparable technological conditions, the tariff may differ, for example, for different water utilities by more than 10 times. The same applies to areas such as water disposal, electricity and heat supply, and so on.
In what conditions do companies operate and citizens live if in a neighboring area the tariff for 1 cubic meter of water or, say, 1 gigacalorie of heat is 10 times higher? The Government has now prepared standards in order to level out this situation; this work has now been practically completed. I can say that leveling is now underway, and this is very important.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, you spoke about cartelization. I want to say that this is approximately two percent of GDP today. Cartels have truly taken over the economy today. Now, on your instructions, a special plan to combat the cartels has been developed, and I think there will be results.
Thus, concluding my speech, I would like to say that the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Articles 8 and 34), the Presidential Decree laid the fundamental foundations for the development of competition in our country; 13 government sectoral acts, combined into one act, will be adopted in the near future and will, in fact, be serious sectoral reforms for each sector.
The new standard for the development of competition and digital values is a large and ambitious plan, which, in fact, is, in a good sense, a national plan for the development of competition in our country.
V. Putin: Thanks a lot.
Ulyanovsk region, Sergey Ivanovich Morozov, please.
S. Morozov: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Taking into account the fact that we have been working on the development of competition for quite a long time and quite professionally, in my opinion, we have quite successfully implemented the standard for the development of competition, allow me to make several proposals at once.
First. Today we face quite a large number of challenges. And one of the serious and deep ones is tariff policy. A significant amount of disagreements with regulatory authorities, overestimation or underestimation of tariffs, their opacity, manifestations of corruption - all this is associated with an expanded interpretation and inadequate application of the principle of balancing the economic interests of producers and consumers.
At the same time, balanced and stable prices and tariffs for services in the infrastructure sector are one of the key instruments of government regulation, and this has a positive effect on reducing macroeconomic uncertainty and serves as a factor in sustainable economic growth.
What, in my opinion, Vladimir Vladimirovich, needs to be done? It is necessary to significantly refine the draft federal law on the fundamentals of state regulation of prices and tariffs in order to more specifically develop legal regulatory mechanisms. Everything about it is very, very vague today.
I believe that we must conduct a thorough review of the validity of tariff calculations. Then we will be able to stop any political speculation in this area and reduce the degree of tension and discontent. Therefore, I propose to introduce the institution of an independent and public audit of all decisions on tariffs, a kind of RIA.
By the way, we have already taken this path in our region. Starting this year, tariffs established in the region are checked by an independent center for monitoring and control over pricing.
In addition, the role and powers of public consumer councils should be significantly increased.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, we need to turn this institution into a powerful instrument of public control. To do this, they should be formed exclusively under regional public chambers, and not under tariff authorities.
In addition, we propose to give such councils the right to veto any decisions to change tariffs. Of course, at the same time, it is necessary to clearly define the procedure for forming these councils so that they do not become vehicles for the dishonest behavior of individual players in the market.
Secondly, we are already using various tools to stimulate the real sector of the economy in our country. But most of them, Vladimir Vladimirovich, are budgetary, while the resources of the companies themselves are poorly used, the resource of cooperation between different levels and segments of business, and a holistic ecosystem of growing from startups to national champions is not built. The working group's report draws special attention to this.
An effective tool, in my opinion, will be the establishment of quality indicators for procurement activities for large entities and natural monopolies and enterprises, both with state participation and those using public funds, for example, in government procurement.
These may be indicators such as an increase in the volume of purchases from small and medium-sized businesses, an increase in the number of procurement participants from small and medium-sized businesses, or an increase in the number of suppliers from small and medium-sized businesses. And then supply chains will arise around such large enterprises, including small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. I can give an example of our region - around Aviastar, which you visited many times, and around the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant and large foreign companies.
A specialized competence center is currently being created. It would be advisable, in my opinion, to formulate special measures to stimulate large enterprises so that they separate production cycles into independent small enterprises.
And thirdly, I agree with Artemyev, I believe that we should pay special attention to those sectors of the economy where the role of the state has historically been large: these are public utilities, social services, education, healthcare, culture.
Research shows that this is where the level of competition is minimal. But you have to do something there very, very carefully, after calculating everything well. In this regard, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I propose to develop a separate program for developing competition for these markets. The measures and actions that are being taken today do not yet produce the expected effect and do not contribute to increasing the variety and quality of services provided.
And in conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that the standard for the development of competition has become one of the key tools for shaping competition policy at the regional level. At the same time, Vladimir Vladimirovich, in your Address to the Federal Assembly, you set new tasks for the development of a competitive economy.
I propose to carry out work to update the standard and include in it measures aimed at developing labor productivity, opening high-tech, as well as modernizing current production facilities and, as a result, reducing production costs.
V. Putin: Thanks a lot.
Oreshkin Maxim Stanislavovich, please.
M. Oreshkin: Thanks a lot.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear participants of the State Council meeting!
Sustained strong economic growth requires two fundamental conditions: macroeconomic stability and a healthy competitive environment. If everything is in order with macroeconomic stability, then in matters of competition we, of course, are seriously lagging behind.
What factors distort competition? The first thing that has already been discussed today is government regulation. Mechanisms for distorting the single economic space here could be, for example, special conditions for access to government procurement, targeted allocation of government subsidies, a special location of control and supervisory authorities, or, for example, the formation of special legislative conditions for individual companies in competitive markets, for example, reduced tax rates, guarantees unchanged tax conditions in the future and much more.
Here, for example, when using an instrument such as a special investment contract, it is important to adhere to the principle of non-distortion of competition. You, Vladimir Vladimirovich, set exactly this task at the St. Petersburg Forum last year. Here, together with the FAS, we took the initiative to include a representative of the service in the relevant interdepartmental commission to assess the threat to competition when considering such contracts. Dmitry Anatolyevich supported our initiative.
In addition, and Igor Yuryevich spoke about this, we consider it possible to add a mandatory procedure for assessing the impact on the competitive environment to the regulatory impact assessment mechanism.
In general, when it comes to the distribution of subsidies or the use of other public policy mechanisms, we need to move away as much as possible from those instruments where decisions are made by officials, and move on to transparent mechanisms that support competition both within and between industries.
A good sign of the effectiveness of state support is the sign that the supported enterprise has entered global markets. You also spoke about this in your opening remarks. I believe that in all government support measures we need to introduce criteria for the recipient’s presence in foreign markets. This approach at one time largely determined the transition of economies such as Japan and Korea to the group of countries with high incomes.
The second factor that distorts competition is direct government intervention in certain markets. In your opening remarks, and a lot has already been said about this today, you spoke about the problem of unitary enterprises. I would also note the issue of growing the overall share of the state in the economy, including through large companies that are expanding the scope of their activities.
Last year, according to experts, the state’s share increased again and came close to 50 percent. In your Address, you set a goal to increase the share of small and medium-sized businesses in GDP to 40 percent. It is obvious that without a significant reduction in the state’s share, this level will simply be impossible to achieve.
The third factor of distortion of competition is the distribution of financial resources in the economy not according to the principles of the greatest efficiency of the recipient. In many ways, the growth of the public sector that we are talking about in recent years has been financed by credit resources, and the problem here is that a significant increase in the debt of state-owned companies and companies with state participation is not always accompanied by an increase in their profits.
This indicates insufficient investment efficiency and significant risks for the state in the future. Such companies, starting from a certain level of debt burden, are given loans solely because the treasury is behind them.
It is also necessary to remember the problems of the banking system, where, for example, in recent years, a number of banks, even those already in the reorganization procedure, have had their assets grow by hundreds of billions of rubles. This means that someone else received this money instead of efficient companies in the real sector of the economy. The fact that this practice is gradually fading away is, of course, a positive contribution to economic development.
The fourth factor is the shadow economy. The difference in taxation due to tax evasion is a very serious factor in distorting the conditions of competition. The trend towards increased transparency that has formed in recent years should definitely be continued, and, of course, the possibilities of using new digital technologies provide great support here.
You know, restrictions on competition often come from good intentions: an agreement was reached with some company, created greenhouse conditions for it, and got rid of competitors for ten years. She invested in return - and please, she can demonstrate quick results.
However, one must understand that short-term positive effects are often followed by long-term and Negative consequences. Due to the reorientation of demand, more efficient enterprises may close, and the consumer remains stuck. long term with not the highest quality products at a high price.
Concluding my speech, I will repeat: the creation of a healthy competitive environment is a basic fundamental condition for achieving the goals set for increasing the share of small and medium-sized businesses, increasing labor productivity, and increasing non-oil and gas exports, and, as a result, in general, ensuring high growth rates economic growth.
V. Putin: Thanks a lot.
Colleagues, please, who would like to speak? Please.
O. Kozhemyako: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
I would like to talk a little about the Far East.
For the purposes set by you and the Government of the Russian Federation for the development Far East, attracting and retaining qualified personnel, I would like to highlight the issue of low competitiveness and unequal conditions in which construction organizations operating in the Far North or equivalent areas find themselves. This is based on the example of the Sakhalin region.
According to Federal law about the “northers”, the organization is obliged to pay northern benefits and allowances to individuals in the form of an increasing coefficient for wages, a regional coefficient, additional days for vacation, a shortened working week for women, and payment for travel to and from family members on vacation. This, as a rule, ranges from 20 to 25 percent of the estimated cost of facilities being built in the Far North.
When conducting competitive procedures, companies registered on the mainland, who do not have or are not the holder of these benefits and are registered in other territories, dump up to 25 percent when competing for construction contracts, win tenders and hire migrants.
So the locals construction manufacturers are deprived of the opportunity to use their potential and are in unequal conditions. In this case, they are forced to keep small engineering groups and, if they win the competition, also recruit migrants in order not to pay these benefits, not to pay the northern coefficients, because they have already gone down in price and they have no opportunity to pay and no guarantees.
As a result, Sakhalin enterprises - this applies not only to our region, this applies to all regions that have territories equal to the regions of the North - remain in non-competitive conditions, which does not allow attracting new personnel, retaining people, or high wages.
And in the end it turns out that today - using the example of the Sakhalin region - we have the entire labor market in construction industry 70 percent consists of migrants - for every 500 thousand population, there are 50 thousand migrants who work in this area.
Based on this, we prepared proposals that we worked with public organizations. They would allow us today to resolve issues related to attracting personnel, increasing wages, participation and creation of qualified organizations that work and understand the specifics of regions where there is their own snow load and seismicity, and to solve the tasks set by you in the Address of March 1 of this year, on increasing the number of rental housing, social facilities, and the development of the Far East.
Therefore, I ask you to instruct the relevant organizations to work on this issue and, accordingly, create equal competitive conditions for construction industry enterprises operating in the Far North.
V. Putin: Thank you.
Please, Sergei Mikhailovich.
S. Mironov(Head of the faction of the party “A Just Russia”» in the State Duma): Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear members of the State Council, participants of the meeting!
For the party that I have the honor to lead, for A Just Russia, it is obvious: creating a real competitive environment in the Russian economy is, first of all, a matter of public trust in the quality of government and, of course, a matter of the quality of life and well-being of every citizen. I would like to briefly dwell on three areas from the point of view of the development of competition in them, which are especially sensitive for our citizens.
The first is the market for social services. The state allowed commercial structures and non-profit organizations (NPOs) to provide social services to the population. However, the advantage of primarily budget financing remains with regional government agencies. That is, equal conditions for competition in the social services market have not yet been created.
Competition in the social services market is not for the consumer, but for resources, for budget money and various foundation grants. Antimonopoly legislation does not yet apply to social services. Therefore, there are two principles in this market - “cheap and cheerful” and “good, but expensive” - which almost do not intersect.
If you look at the tariffs at which social services provide relevant services, then in some cases they are sufficient, including for attracting non-state actors, but in others they are not. Often the real costs of NPOs exceed tariffs from two to six times. If tariffs are balanced, then, of course, there is a prospect of creating a competitive market for social services; it is only necessary to eliminate the legal, economic, organizational and administrative barriers that prevent new providers from entering this market.
In our opinion, all budgetary and social institutions must be consistently transferred to autonomous non-profit organizations, and let them compete on equal terms with NPOs, commercial structures, individual entrepreneurs, and possibly among themselves.
I am confident that NPOs will bring social responsibility and integrity to this market, and commercial structures, in turn, will bring competitiveness, efficiency, organization and technology. By developing competition in the social services market, regional authorities have enough leverage to control the quality of government attention to the fate of the elderly, sick and poor.
The second area is pharmacy chains. The pharmacy network is growing; the number of pharmacies in 2017 increased by 6 percent compared to 2016. This is a significant figure, especially in the current economic situation. The share of the non-state sector is also growing – by 13 percent in physical terms over the past year. Everything seems to be in favor of competition.
But prices for drugs not controlled by the government continue to rise. Prices for drugs not included in the list of vitally important drugs, but sold without a prescription, increased by 7.6 percent in the first half of 2017 alone, that is, twice as fast as the inflation rate.
The first reason for this is that pharmacies are extremely unevenly distributed throughout the country.
The second reason is that in cities with a population of over a million, as a rule, the emergence of new pharmacies is practically impossible. Such cities are densely covered with several discounters, and it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for others to enter the market. There are many pharmacies, but there was and is a monopoly.
Third reason. Cartel agreements when receiving orders for state and municipal needs in the pharmaceutical market account for more than 13 percent of the total number of identified cartels, second place after construction.
The Government is now actively discussing the possibility of entering the pharmaceutical retail food market. On the one hand, this should lead to tougher competition, but what about counterfeit goods?
Now the share of counterfeit goods in this market is estimated at 7.4 percent, which amounts to almost 70 billion rubles. But if retailers get the opportunity to sell drugs, this share could increase significantly.
Different markets have different competitive conditions. Even in the European Union, the pharmacy network is not competitive, so prices for almost all medicines there are approved annually. I think we also need to reconsider the pricing policy for medicines, and not invent new competition schemes.
And the third area is the construction market. Behind the talk about competition in this market there is overt cartelization, the distribution of contracts among one’s own under the guise of competitive procedures. This is a real scourge of the industry, especially at the regional level.
According to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the construction complex leads in the number of cartel agreements when obtaining contracts for state and municipal needs, more than 24 percent of the total number of identified cartels.
Moreover, according to the National Association of Builders, in some regions up to 95 percent of the construction market can be occupied by one company, whose monopoly is based on relations with the regional authorities. According to the Ministry of Construction, the majority of developers, namely 98 percent, build only in their own, so to speak, home in quotes, federal district.
The creation of industry self-regulatory institutions also did not lead to the revival of competition; rather, on the contrary. In practice, many regional associations began to resemble medieval workshops and turned into regalia and means of monopolistic control of the regional construction market, preventing the emergence of external players on it. In this regard, we believe that the standard for the development of competition in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation requires improvement.
It is necessary to stipulate that among the participants in competitions for state, municipal and construction contracts there must be at least one company from another subject of the Federation and one company from another federal district. This will be a reliable remedy against industry autarky and opacity in regional markets.
In conclusion. To develop competition and determine priority tasks for creating a competitive environment in the economy, we, of course, must rely on the comprehensive system-wide provisions of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the main directions of state policy for the development of competition and on numerous federal and regional programs for the development of competition, but also necessarily take into account the industry specifics of working in this industry.
At the same time, for almost all sectors of the economy there are so-called demand restrictions on the development of competition, bearing in mind the level of solvency of the population, which, as we know, unfortunately, is extremely low. In addition, restrictions on healthy and fair party political competition interfere with the creation of a competitive environment in the regional economy. But this topic is obviously for another separate meeting.
Thank you for your attention.
V. Putin: Buryatia, please.
A. Tsydenov:
One of the conditions for ensuring competition is, in my opinion, the consistency of competition legislation and budget legislation. The more competitive the bidding, the more participants, disputes, claims, complaints we have, including to the FAS, and we leave the bidding for several months.
We have a sword of Damocles hanging over all government customers on January 1st. If the money is not spent on January 1, it is withdrawn accordingly. Willy-nilly, you want to have a contractor in whom you are confident that he will do it.
If the market is open, and it is open, if there is a delay in concluding contracts as part of the competition, I would like the shifts caused by this consideration to be taken into account accordingly when it comes to timing, including financing. And there would be rules that would provide for the possibility of financing concluded and existing contracts after January 1. Now there are rules, but they are quite strict, that is, they are evidence-based - as you prove, they call it. First question.
And the second is in individual areas. For example, in our North, 100 percent of municipal unitary enterprises and state unitary enterprises have been liquidated in the housing and communal services sector, there is not a single one. According to the indicator of the Ministry of Construction, 100 percent of heat supply organizations have been transferred to concession. The first year passed, as a result, with a norm of 45 days of coal reserves, in fact there was no more than 10 on average per year.
We ourselves, the government, escorted every ton of coal from the mine, from the open-pit mine, because the private traders who came collect payment from citizens for heat and services after the fact, and they need to pay for coal, transportation and everything else by prepayment. They have no money.
Absolutely everyone agreed that “we cannot,” and accordingly the government dealt with all this. In such areas for which there is a particular risk, we need to look at it to still retain a share of state participation. Again, you can evaluate in what area, but it is difficult to completely leave such sensitive things as, I repeat, heating the northern regions to private business.
Not a single large company entered into the concession. Everyone came in small, we understood that they were no good, but we tried. Heat was provided, but, I repeat, everyone was doing this except the companies themselves.
V. Putin: Artemyev spoke. He said it doesn't have to be all of them, but fences can be painted by private companies. That's what we're talking about. Where there are sensitive ones, where there is talk of life support, you need to look at what kind of companies they are, of course. You can't give it to just anyone. Of course not.
Gennady Andreevich, please.
G. Zyuganov: Dear Colleagues!
I think it is no coincidence that the President appointed a meeting of the State Council for April 5. It was on this day that Alexander Nevsky split the dog knights and taught the Livonian Order to respect Russian truth. They tried to take Pskov 126 times, but failed. Pskov was and remains a Russian land.
Then the centralized foundations of the powerful subsequent Russian state were laid. But we grew with the wealth that was in Siberia and the Far East. And today the main tasks that we solve, be it priority or competition, are determined by the President’s Address, which formulates the long-term goals of the development of our country.
In this regard, I would like to quote you the decree of the sovereign, which was related to the development of Siberia. Today, the main priority of world politics is the struggle for resources and new technologies. And this struggle is becoming more and more intense. Then, developing this gigantic region, we laid the foundations of the greatness that we are proud of today. But I wanted you to listen to every line of the decree that allowed us to inhabit these great lands. Listen - the decree: “Every person who goes to settle Siberia must have: three good geldings, three cows, two goats, three pigs, five sheep, two geese, five chickens, two ducklings , yes, for a year of bread, and some plow for arable land, and carts, and all sorts of junk, and help, and another 25 rubles for each.” The cow cost less than three rubles. And for the first years they were all freed from all duties and taxes, ideal conditions were created for talented people to go and learn.
If we analyze the first part of the President’s Address, then for its implementation tomorrow we will need approximately 10 trillion rubles. We recently met with the Prime Minister and discussed many problems, according to the Government’s estimates – from 7 to 15. Let’s take at least ten, which can actually be obtained by forming a budget of not 15, but 25 trillion. It seems to me, I think that all factions should now work very closely on this.
The President’s key task is to reach global development rates of approximately 3.5 percent. But if you look at the task, in order for GDP per capita to increase by 1.5 times, then we need to reach about 7–8 percent.
There have been two cases in recent years. Before the Great Patriotic War, the USSR developed at a rate of 15–17 percent, the Chinese, according to Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, at 10–12 percent.
In this regard, the question immediately arises about our budget. The Chairman of the Duma Volodin is sitting here, he has already given us these instructions. The budget that was formed and approved, Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to it for the next two years the economy must be reduced by 17 percent, social services by about the same amount, and housing and communal services by 32 percent, this despite the depreciation of equipment even in the gas sector of almost 55 percent, and more than a third of the population lives in “Khrushchev” housing.
Considering that a real war has been declared on us, we feel it, this is the long-term strategy of the Americans and NATO members, then we need to solve three problems. First of all, the cohesion of society - you have said more than once, speaking in the Duma, and in each of your Addresses, but for this it is necessary to immediately reduce the split that is growing, and, first of all, turn to the children of war - there are 14 million of them who are eking out miserable existence. You supported us last time, we discussed this with the Prime Minister, now there is additional income, it’s time to support those who provided us with not just Victory, but raised the country from ruins and ashes.
The second task is to mobilize all our resources. In principle, we have them. I would like to remind you that over the past three years we have sold approximately 20 trillion rubles worth of oil and gas, gold, timber, and diamonds, but the budget has never exceeded eight trillion. Let's work together, and there is huge scope for directing these resources to internal needs.
New technologies – priorities are very important here. As for the military-industrial complex, there has been a reduction and cutback. I think, Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is a dangerous trend, because there dual technologies and the best shots. Here we can think through a procedure that will allow us to direct all the best to civilian sectors.
Village. We recently discussed it very thoroughly, we must give it its due, the Duma has been paying attention to this topic lately Special attention: Both the hearings and the programs have been worked out quite well here. In our country we have twenty programs worth almost eight trillion rubles. But the program for sustainable rural development is only 16 billion.
And if you consider that 38 million people live in rural areas, one in four, and one job in a rural area is six in a city, then it is necessary to minimize the color of the money that goes to all sectors, primarily in the interests of those who live in rural areas. Otherwise, the situation will only get worse.
As for our main wealth: land, forest and fresh water, our fertility is beginning to decrease even in the Kuban. If Europe invests $800 per hectare, China invests $1.5 thousand, and we have only $35. And here you can take quite energetic measures. But once again I return you all to national enterprises. They have become better in our country, despite the crisis. I thank the President: he helped recapture Zvenigovskoye from the bandits, which became the best in Europe. Lenin's state farm is also developing successfully, and has become an exemplary farm in the Moscow region.
But we can move this forward provided we vigorously develop construction. If every tenth person in the country works in construction, we will have real results. The tragedies that we observed were primarily associated with the destruction of the building complex. In Gosstroy, nine leading major firms and ministries determined our success in space, and at BAM, and at Magnitogorsk. Everywhere this system was debugged. It can be largely restored.
To do this, it is necessary to have professional builders in all government and management structures. And when SNiPs, norms and rules are violated all the time, then you can expect anything. We believe that all conditions are ripe for this. We have the opportunity to dramatically increase the pace by combining the efforts of all political forces and all competent, intelligent leaders.
V. Putin: Thanks a lot.
Please, Vladimir Volfovich.
V. Zhirinovsky: Good afternoon
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to tradition, I am from the Russian language. What is one of the reasons for Russophobia? This is the language. They say: “You Russians have gone into space, but out of ten words you have, eight are foreign.” You just came from Turkey and Iran. Why did they find a word for the head of state “Jumhuriyatbashkans” - Turks. What, they couldn't take Latin? But they respect their language. Same thing for the Persians. We have the only language where a new word is introduced every month. Just now the head of the FAS says: “Let’s not have a funeral service, but a ritual.” Again. Already here, at the State Council, he is trying to impose someone else’s word on us, he believes that there are apparently more meanings there.
Now that the Unified State Examination is taking place, there is a wave of people returning to the old method. Let's do an experiment this year: let's admit to one university using the Unified State Exam, and let's restore it to another entrance exams. And where will it be better to study? It’s clear that there will be corruption where there are entrance exams, telephone rights will appear there, and young people from the provinces will not be able to come. But a wave is starting, someone wants to get money at university. They have little money in universities, the Unified State Exam somehow cleared this scheme.
Everything that was said here is correct, but it seems to me that few reasons were given. There is money, there are people, a huge country, there is experience, everything is there, but somewhere the mechanisms are not working efficiently.
Here is medicine - the treatment takes a long time, it’s bad, and the patient dies. What diagnosis is written in the certificate, in the epicrisis of death? The one for which the attending physician treated. And the pathologist gives a different diagnosis: “You treated it incorrectly.” The head physician says: “No, write the one that was determined by the attending physician.” Millions of people do not know hereditary diseases, and thousands of doctors continue to treat incorrectly - there will be no responsibility.
So I made the wrong diagnosis, but they won’t punish me, but at the top they will count how many diagnoses were not justified. The chief physician puts pressure, the governor, the mayor also put pressure, any local bosses suppress initiative and honest statistics.
Let's say government procurement. We define one person, what does he do? The same school or hospital is supplied with poor food: it is cheaper - so that the option to win, whoever wins the competition, is cheaper and faster. It’s cheaper and faster to supply nasty food with palm oil and milk powder. Why are we doing this? And then the Ministry of Health cannot treat these children.
Let's have three people: the first place winner, and two or three more suppliers, and we'll give the school director or head physician the right to decide who else he will assign. Why give the entire order to the supposed winner? He deliberately lowers prices, and then negotiates and raises them again, or the supplies are bad. Therefore, here, at least at some level, let's give the manager the right to at least partially decide who will supply, otherwise it will take a long time.
And look at who produces medicines for this business: is he going to launch a large batch? No. What if he doesn’t win the competition? And he releases a small batch, but it is more expensive, and we will always rush into overly expensive drugs, because pharmaceutical companies will be afraid.
Trading networks are all in the hands of foreigners and all in the private sector. And where is the success? Where is the success? Goods are from abroad and of poor quality, and our citizens cannot enter retail chains. Here is the Smolensk region, here is Governor Ostrovsky, - for many years now the market “Smolyan - for Smolensk”, that is, a specially separate one new market, where they sell only local goods from local producers.
Did this experience spread throughout the country? No. Why? Because the governor is from the Liberal Democratic Party. Would be from " United Russia“That’s it, look what an achievement, well done, they found a way out of the situation so that local goods appeared on the market. But this has already been done, there is success here. All retail chains must be nationalized.
Here is Kemerovo. The owner is in Australia. Everyone is living abroad. Cyprus. From abroad they, so to speak, manage our private sector. He did not justify himself in this regard. Because all over the world the private sector, that’s right, it works well, it is lighter, more flexible, but it invests money in its economy. Our private sector sends everything abroad. But we are sucking all the juice out of our economy. We work and work, and the money goes elsewhere. The Ministry of Finance sends, for example, some securities abroad, some foreign exchange reserves, the IMF there, other foreign structures. China began to withdraw from there, and what are we waiting for?
Look, food in Crimea has improved in four years. Why? Nobody gets in there. They are afraid, they can't. And there the milk is better, the cottage cheese is better, everything else. Why is the governor sitting here and being silent? He would have said, let him compare food products in Moscow and Crimea. Why should we go to Crimea to buy food? This restriction in Crimea made it possible for Crimeans to provide normal food products to the residents of Crimea. But we in Moscow cannot do this. In the most expensive stores they sell all sorts of rubbish, where everything is overpriced, artificial nitrates, palm oil, and milk powder. That's why we need to do it here.
We have 44 thousand settlements. How many markets? Why is ours silent? Federal agency, antimonopoly service? There is no trade minister. Tell me where, in which country in the world there are no ministries of trade? In America, he is both the Minister of Domestic Trade and Foreign Trade. We have a small department in the Ministry of Industry. I ask: why? They say: “We don’t have state stores, what will we manage?” What does the US Department of Commerce manage? There is also very little, there is no state network at all. That is, they don’t even want to manage.
This definitely needs to be restored. Maybe not two ministries, but at least one. Trade is the most important element. We can produce. We can’t sell because stores and retail chains are occupied with someone else’s goods and in the wrong hands. And of course, if there are 44 thousand settlements, this is wildness. 6 thousand buildings there. What is it? There should be a market in every settlement, so that a person knows: I produced - here is the market, I will sell. But he doesn’t want to produce because he won’t sell.
I was in one of the areas where a woman raised a pig. Where should I take her? She can not. I was in the Krasnodar region. A woman collected onions in the basement. Where will she take him? We need to restore the producers. Take the pig to the slaughterhouse and send the onions to the store - pick it up, deliver it. They can’t carry and drive.
On the one hand, our resellers drive up prices, but on the other hand, they simply don’t exist. We have harmful resellers, because they do not help, they inflate prices. Milk from a cow costs 6 rubles. Why is the FAS silent? And in the store - 50. Who takes 44 rubles from us? And bad milk too. We need to put things in order.
Prices will fall if we remove those resellers who do not promote trade. But somewhere, on the contrary, we need help so that it can be realized. Sakhalin says about migrants: “Give free movement of labor - all our people will be unemployed.” There are a lot of Asians. You were in Turkey, in Iran. 70 percent of them are young people under 30 years old. For us - up to 40 years. We have no youth at all compared to them, because the birth rate there is three times higher. Türkiye is our peer in the revolution. She had 17 million, now 70. We had 150 million, and 150 are left. That is, we have not grown in terms of population.
I understand that the south and Muslims have a different attitude towards women, towards childbirth, however, we could also improve here. Therefore there must be regulation.
Migrants will work for pennies, there are more and more of them. This needs to be understood. How are we going to kick them out? We are as inconvenient as Mexico and the United States in building walls. We don't have enough money. Trump, even with Mexico, does not have money for a wall, and we will not build it. And they want to work, maybe with us, these are former Soviet citizens.
If we fully launch the market mechanism, as many here advise: there is too much state, then there will be no state if we remove the state everywhere. This is a necessary measure. Of two evils, you need to choose the lesser - bad, but there is a state and Russia.
A good market in the private sector, and Russia will drown in this sea of other goods and other people, another culture, another language. This must be understood, so it is very important. Therefore, I would like conclusions to be drawn that the private sector has not justified itself, it needs to be corrected somehow, it is only for its own enrichment.
Let's say freedom of the press. This is good? If restrictions on the press are completely removed, they will destroy any country, they will destroy the whole world. Even Trump is already indignant, the whole world is indignant, they write what they want, there is false information all around, it deafens people.
When was Russo-Japanese War, Petersburg was for the defeat of the Russian army. What is it, the capital itself wants the Russian army to lose to Japan? When the Soviet Union was being broken, the journalists welcomed it, they rejoiced: “Finish them off! Finish them off! Let's destroy! Whom to destroy? Our people.
And today the free press, if it is without restrictions, will arrange such things for us, both the population and the broadcasts. We say “demographics,” but every day all the programs are about the same thing: surrogate mother, recognition of paternity, DNA, divorce, killed mother-in-law, separated, children somewhere else. Who wants to give birth? Who is stopping you from stopping this kind of information? Show a good family, but the press says: “No, we need a bad one.”
We show bad things - money flows, more people watch, and they get paid for advertising. That is, a country in which only advertisers live. They earn money and leave somewhere, but the population is in a worse situation. Therefore, I believe that restrictions are needed.
In general, the model of democracy that was invented for us during the transition from the Soviet Union to a new state is not suitable for Russia. We took someone else's. We have our own. We don’t want to develop our own, we take someone else’s, it is rejected. When organs are transplanted, no doctor guarantees that everything will be fine; rejection is possible.
Russia, all nations and Russians have rejected the Western model of democracy, along with the free press, the private sector, but we don’t see this, we don’t recognize it, and they, our people, are already robbing us. Not the Mongol invasion, not German armies, not the Swedes, Poles, all conquerors, but our citizens with our passports take money abroad day and night and thereby hinder our development. It's time to draw a historical conclusion.
We need a different model of democracy and a different model of the economy. Not to return somewhere, but to adjust it so that they work here and know that everything you earn here will be spent. You will send money there only for contracts, if you bought something there, or to repay a loan.
You just can’t export capital there day and night. It turns out that it is beneficial for us that they impose sanctions, that they block accounts. But they will block it not to give it back to us, but to simply anger our domestic sector. Let's leave their money here. And we need to understand who will go there, then let’s not give them the opportunity to work here.
And one last thing. Vladimir Vladimirovich, give instructions, we have web cameras all over the country. If you want to determine whether the governor is doing a good job, let them give you pictures. 85 subjects, let’s say, are going to work tomorrow, April 6, in all the centers of the subjects, look where the most joyful faces are - that’s where the good governor is; and where the gloomiest, dissatisfied, irritated and angry are, this is the best assessment of the work of this governor and mayor.
And we don’t need fake reports, we don’t need these numbers. Full of numbers, confused. Today is a digital economy, let there be digital sociology. Let them show you. Otherwise, webcams only work for the criminal investigation department. Let them work for you so that you can see what our citizens want.
Thank you. I finished.
V. Putin: Thanks a lot.
I think that if we introduce such a criterion, tomorrow everyone will smile. But this is unlikely to reflect the real state of affairs in the region’s economy. But thank you very much for your suggestions.
I ask you to.
S. Neverov: Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
I will talk very briefly about the issues of competition development. It seems to me that it is very good and important to remember the good Russian proverb “A penny saves the ruble.” You said at the very beginning that it would seem to be intangible, but then we see colossal losses.
It is now being implemented in all regions good project. You initiated, and the regions have now received funds for the purchase of mobile medical centers. And such centers, when they travel through villages, around villages, they are called “health train”, because they come to these settlements, where there are less than 100 people.
And people sometimes come to a cardiologist for the first time in many, many years, or come to another specialist. And now a lot of non-governmental organizations have begun to be involved in such medical trains, because there are not enough specialists everywhere.
But starting with a penny, I want to emphasize one point, seemingly insignificant. We, too, in the region, in the Smolensk region, have stopped taking ophthalmologists on this train, why? Because the person travels anyway, he needs payment. Why? Because these non-state ones are queuing up medical organizations who deal with vision issues, why?
Because they ask to go on this train for free, and when 150-200 people from four or five villages come a day to be examined, half of them practically require glasses, vision is required, and they do it for free, because they get it right away an order for 150 glasses, then they bring it to these settlements and simply sell it to people for money.
When we really look at and look for savings not in billions, not in millions, but look at every penny, and within the framework of such competition - it seems to me that then we can have an additional good economic effect.
A. Kalinin (President of the All-Russian public organization small and medium enterprises"Support of Russia») : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear Colleagues!
For small businesses, fair competition means, first of all, transparent and reasonable access to sales markets. But at the same time, the mechanisms must ensure the supply of quality goods and economically justified prices. First of all, what do we care about? We recently looked at research from the Ministry of Finance, according to Law 223 of state corporations, according to the Ministry of Finance, 95 percent are about non-competitive procedures.
And what do we see that worries us? The share of purchases for the state corporation from a single supplier is growing every year and has already exceeded 60 percent. We really hope that the laws that the Government of the Russian Federation has adopted and developed will come into effect on July 1. There, procurement methods are sharply reduced, and the number of sites is reduced to a reasonable limit.
That's the right decision. We will see how it will be implemented. But you said today that there must be some kind of balance. What worries us about the only purchases? Once it was 40, 50, now over 60. And it seems to us that the volume of those purchases that the state corporation of small and medium-sized businesses monitors, and where purchases from a single supplier are many times smaller, could be greater. That is, it is necessary to set some kind of limit on purchases from a single supplier for state corporations, otherwise they justify this and sharply reduce the competitive field.
But we will all benefit from this. Even if the most advanced and high-quality digital solutions are available, it is still one state. They could somehow transfer this to those regions that are ready to take the digital platform and implement it on their territory without budgetary costs.
Perhaps this is a licensing mechanism at reasonable prices, of course. But best practices, of course, can be replicated in other regions. There is no need to invent anything. There are better digital solutions.
The third point is the procurement of innovative products. We have Resolution No. 1442 “On the procurement of innovative products.” The share is growing, but is there any contradiction there? Firstly, we have no idea what innovative products are, a clearly defined concept, what we classify as innovative products, and how it could be included in the register.
And then another moment arises. After all, as a rule, innovative products are more expensive than those technologies that are used on conventional products. For example, composite materials and the processing of concrete and bitumen are different. But there we get protection for the entire lifespan, especially of marine concrete units, but here for two years.
Still, some kind of price preference should be created for innovative products. We sometimes create this at the state level, as in the situation with innovative railcars, but for private enterprises and medium-sized enterprises, it turns out to be a contradiction: I have to sell it cheaper. But the product is of higher quality, longer lasting, better, and a priori it cannot be cheaper. And here some kind of mechanism based on price criteria for innovative products should be built.
And the moment about the privatization of federal property. We have achieved excellent results under Federal Law 159 on the privatization of municipal and regional property. Tens, hundreds of thousands of small businesses bought property at market prices. But we have accumulated a huge amount of federal property that was not subject to this law. This is the property of a federal state unitary enterprise, an open joint stock company, the preparation for the privatization of which, they are tiny, costs a lot of money. And there is huge potential for developing competition.
And finally, about the Far East, since I am a member of the Public Council of the Far East Port. The mechanism started working. But here too: people went there, they would like to develop, and around the land of the Ministry of Defense.
Is it also necessary to withdraw so much from economic circulation in order to prevent the development of those enterprises that now want to take advantage of this mechanism of the Far East port? I would also like to carry out some kind of reasonable audit, perhaps, of whether the Ministry of Defense needs such lands.
Thank you.
V. Putin: Formulate your request specifically, give it to me or Dmitry Anatolyevich.
Svetlana Vitalievna, please.
S. Chupsheva: Good afternoon, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear Colleagues!
In 2015, as part of the national entrepreneurial initiative, it was the Agency’s working group strategic initiatives was the developer of the regional competition standard. It was also formulated by business representatives and experts working in various markets. The objective of the standard at the regional level was to develop competition in regional markets and, of course, reduce the burden on regional budgets.
What do we see as a result of monitoring over three years? Of course, it may not have been possible to achieve such large-scale results, but again we see where the implementation of the standard takes an informal approach, where the governor actually sees this as a priority of his work.
Let me give you a few examples. Social markets are probably the most difficult in terms of attracting private investment from the non-state sector.
In the field of preschool education in the country as a whole, we have only a two percent share of private kindergartens in the total volume. Regions that are probably paying more attention to this are encouraging non-state companies to enter this market.
Samara region - there the share of the private sector is 13 percent, Perm region - 8 percent, Tomsk region - 6 percent.
A system of certificates is also being introduced in this area, that is, new mechanisms for financing social projects are being introduced. Public-private projects have firmly established themselves as an effective tool in the development of private initiative.
For example, during 2017, public-private partnership agreements were concluded in 39 regions. Thanks to the involvement of the non-state sector in preschool education Over the past year, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug managed to save 1 billion in regional budget funds.
A separate requirement of the standard is devoted to optimizing the activities of natural monopolies. In the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Bashkortostan, within the framework of the activities of intersectoral consumer councils on the activities of natural monopolies, a mechanism for technological and price audit, investment projects of natural monopolies.
In total, based on the results of such an audit of investment projects in 2017 in the Republic of Tatarstan, savings amounted to more than 232 million rubles, which is 34 percent of the total cost of investment projects subject to audit. In the Republic of Bashkortostan, the use of the same mechanism allowed saving 138 million rubles and reducing tariffs for technological connection to power grids by up to 53 percent. And in the Voronezh region, one of the best interactive maps for connecting to electrical networks has been created. Thus, the regional standard for developing competition works for those who work.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, I would like, perhaps, to propose again, probably in continuation of the monitoring of the progress of implementation of the standard. Today, regions independently conduct surveys of business communities that assess the effectiveness of the measures that the regions are implementing in terms of admission and increasing competitiveness in these markets.
Perhaps, by analogy with the national rating, where this assessment is given by four large business associations themselves, the same monitoring system in terms of the competition standard can also be used. That is, so that it is not the regions that submit their assessments to the FAS and the Ministry of Economic Development, but the business associations directly say how at the municipal level, at the regional level, to comply with the requirements of this standard. I believe that here we can move away from the formal approach. And, probably, the regions will be more attentive to this work.
Also, the difficulty for the social sector lies in tariffs. That is, the region can create and open these markets to the private, non-state sector, but the tariffs, as colleagues have already talked about this, vary several times. For example, for a social service, for the purchase of medicines in Moscow, the tariff is 250 rubles. In other regions it can be ten times less. And of course, neither an NGO nor a private operator will come to this market. And here we already have examples, developed jointly with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Labor, and the Ministry of Health, on the introduction of new mechanisms for financing such social projects.
This is an infrastructure mortgage, these are the certificates that I have already mentioned, and all kinds of compensation formats that are already working successfully in a number of regions. And we believe that such mechanisms need to be implemented everywhere, in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Therefore, I also propose to introduce these best practices within the framework of the competition development standard in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, if I may, another proposal. Last year, you approved the Decree “On the approval of key performance indicators for governors.” And perhaps also include assessment of the implementation of the standard by business associations as one of the performance indicators of governors. I think that would be effective too.
V. Putin: Thank you.
Alexey Vladimirovich Ostrovsky, please.
A. Ostrovsky: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
The issue that you raised today at a meeting of the State Council, in the opinion of the Administration of the Smolensk Region, in the case of professional, responsible, high-quality and successful implementation of your instructions by the heads of the constituent entities, can have extremely ambitious, large-scale significance in terms of returning the Russian Federation to leading positions in a number of areas economies that the Russian Federation, unfortunately, for objective and subjective reasons, lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
In a number of areas in the 2000s, in accordance with your instructions, the work of the Government, relevant ministries and departments, the picture changed. But at the same time, in our opinion, there is still a significant opportunity to cover those reserves that exist.
I will give a number of examples. Using the example of the Smolensk region, there are a number of areas of the economy in which we have objectively left the leading position in the world economy: this is, first of all, diamond processing, meaning the Kristall production association, the largest diamond producer in the country, and this is flax growing. If regarding diamonds, on this topic, the question is deeper, and I don’t have enough time to report to you here on this issue, which, of course, you yourself are familiar with, Vladimir Vladimirovich, then I will give examples regarding flax growing.
In the Soviet Union, thanks exclusively to the reserves of the Russian Federation, we were the first, the world's leader in the production of flax fiber and products made from flax fiber. We lost this in the 90s.
Now, in accordance with your instructions, we are gradually returning Russia to the role of leader, but at the same time there are still colossal reserves. Let's say, in the Smolensk region over the past six years, taking into account the fact that in the Soviet Union we were first in the country in flax fiber, we have already returned to first place in flax fiber in the Central Federal District and are already second in the Russian Federation.
At the same time, of course, it is necessary to increase the number of areas that will be sown with flax, and as a result, engage in deep processing of flax and export products from this crop. Because in the future, the Russian Federation may gain a leading position, and we will become second in exports of flax products after grain, which is now in first place among plant crops in exports.
At the same time, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, only 14 out of 40 flax-growing regions in the country are now engaged in flax production, so for objective reasons, here, of course, everything depends on the desire or reluctance of this or that leader. Therefore, of course, the implementation of your instructions depends personally on the responsibility of one or another manager.
As a proposal: dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, if you support the proposals of the administration of the Smolensk region and instruct the Government of the Russian Federation, relevant departments, ministries to inspect in which areas under the Soviet Union we were the first in the world, in flax we were strong, in diamond processing , in other directions.
Conduct an appropriate audit, and after identifying these areas, develop appropriate “ road maps“, since for us, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is diamond processing, this is flax growing, for other subjects these are other directions. Together with the Government, we could return the leadership position to the Russian Federation in accordance with your instructions.
Thank you for your word.
V. Putin: Thank you.
Alexander Nikolaevich.
A. Shokhin: Vladimir Vladimirovich, both your speech and the report presented by the working group contain many important positions that business certainly supports. And important tasks are named in these reports: these include overcoming regional protectionism, multiple violations in state and municipal procurement, the need to improve the concession mechanism and whole line others.
There are a lot of useful industry initiatives, and it seems to us that it is absolutely correct that the Government has decided to summarize all industry “road maps” into a single document and monitor not only by industry, but also look at the implementation of these “road maps” as a whole.
It seems to us that the report, of course, is quite harsh in its assessment of the situation with the development of competition, but these assessments are fair: these include shortcomings in tariff regulation and public control over the activities of natural monopolies. Of course, we are concerned about the excessively high share of state participation in the economy, and the insufficient involvement of state property in economic turnover, and the fact that these are not just designated tasks, but there are clearly significant indicators indicated in numbers, including for the regions, in my opinion the look is of great importance.
Just a week ago, four leading business associations, whose leaders are present here: the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Opora and Delovaya Rossiya, discussed existing problems in the development of competition at a meeting of the Coordination Council of Business Unions of Russia together with the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Yuryevich Artemyev.
And we managed to reach an understanding on a number of issues. We also agreed to continue this dialogue on the fifth antimonopoly package and on a number of other legislative initiatives.
I would like to dwell in more detail on one of the topics that we discussed and which was also raised by speakers today - the need to fight cartels. Of course, it is necessary to identify and suppress cartel conspiracies and punish them if these acts cause damage to citizens, organizations or the state. However, checks for collusion, in our opinion, should not acquire an unambiguous criminal bias or be used to destroy a business.
We agree with one of the key points of your Address to the Federal Assembly, which points out the inadmissibility of using criminal law to resolve economic conflicts. In this regard, we believe that the conclusion of the antimonopoly authority should be a mandatory document when initiating a criminal case under Article 178 of the Criminal Code - this is the conclusion of an agreement restricting competition. Or this conclusion must be used when making a decision to bring the person as an accused.
In this regard, it is inappropriate to delegate special economic analysis to law enforcement agencies. And it is the FAS conclusion that should be considered either as the basis for initiating a case, or as one of the evidence in the case.
We agree that it is necessary to ensure the inevitability of responsibility and punishment for antimonopoly violations, but, in our opinion, the current proposal to amend the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes is excessive.
We believe that, firstly, the statute of limitations for antimonopoly prosecutions cannot be endless. Now attempts are being made to extend these terms to 10 years, which deprives business of the opportunity to develop calmly and creates a sort of sword of Damocles in conditions when business has already become conscientious, transparent, and so on.
In this regard, in our opinion, there is no need to go beyond the statute of limitations established by criminal law for crimes of medium gravity; this is a fairly large liability - up to six years.
Igor Yuryevich Artemyev spoke in favor of simplifying the grounds for exemption from criminal liability. We certainly support these proposals, but at the same time we need to evaluate whether it is worth applying punishment in the form of imprisonment for antimonopoly violations, when we can punish quite harshly with purely economic sanctions in the form of compensation for damage and corresponding fines. And for these reasons, quite serious sums of money can accrue, which will be both punishment and, indeed, with a large margin of compensation for damage.
In general, four business associations spoke out in favor of decriminalizing violations related to restrictions on competition and transferring responsibility for them exclusively to administrative arbitration. It is possible, of course, to differentiate the punishment depending on the severity, however, we believe that decriminalization here will reduce risks for business and reduce possible abuse. We would like to ask you to support this.
We believe that fair competition is, of course, the most important condition for successful business activity and, of course, it is one of the factors in the conditions for sustainable economic growth along with macroeconomic stability. Therefore, we support the measures contained both in the Presidential Decree “On the main directions of state policy for the development of competition” and in the plan for the development of competition until the 20th year.
And, in particular, I would like to draw your attention once again to the fact that, from our point of view, the priorities here should be measures to reduce the state’s share and the transfer to a competitive market of some enterprises operating within the perimeter of natural monopolies, and a number of other measures.
I would like to say that conscientious business suffers losses from the non-competitive behavior of market participants no less than the state and society as a whole. Therefore, we are ready to certainly look for compromise solutions here. And I hope that our proposals will be heard and taken into account following the results of today’s State Council.
V. Putin: Thank you.
Sergey Semyonovich, Moscow offered its platform for the entire country, and for free. Please say two words.
S. Sobyanin: Indeed, there is an electronic supplier platform. This is for those who purchase small quantities that are not regulated by Law 44. These are thousands of small institutions that buy buttons and chairs, stationery and so on. It would seem, indeed, a cheap matter, but we are talking about tens of billions and thousands and thousands of small institutions.
A kind of electronic store has been created in Moscow, in which all institutions are required to register and all their small purchases must be made transparently in electronic format. For each purchase there is an electronic automatic auction. The price is sometimes reduced by half.
We have registered more than 70 thousand suppliers from all over the country on this portal. Moreover, we offered our colleagues to fully service their purchases free of charge. Today, seven regions of our country have entered and are working on this portal.
Just recently I spoke with Dmitry Anatolyevich on this topic and proposed a partnership for the Government in general. We will fully provide not only the portal itself, but even the service on this portal.
For regions, you don’t need anything at all, just write an application and go to this portal together with your suppliers. And it is profitable for them not only to purchase themselves, but also to start their small and medium-sized businesses there. Thus, a powerful electronic store is created throughout the country.
All forms of interaction are as simple and transparent as possible. It seems to me that it would be a great, good thing if our colleagues also joined. Some of them also have the same platforms, this is voluntary, but, in my opinion, the Moscow platform is one of the best in the country.
V. Zhirinovsky: Vladimir Vladimirovich, but they cannot provide quality. Electronic will not provide quality, they will still feed you with palm oil, crap, fast food and everything else. Children are being poisoned! 20 thousand die a year from poisoning - 20 thousand! Don't we feel sorry for them? Electronics don’t help; we need to introduce some other limiter.
V. Putin: Vladimir Volfovich, regulatory organizations should do the work. You need to choose this competitive basis, but quality products. And if they are of poor quality, if there is some kind of fraud, control organizations should be involved.
What would you like to say in conclusion? Firstly, we have prepared a list of instructions. We will try to take into account as much as possible everything that was said today during the discussion during the discussion.
As for some questions that I would still like to draw attention to that were raised at the end of our meeting today - regarding the FAS conclusion, Article 178, and so on. In our country, today, FAS conclusions must be requested by law enforcement and investigative authorities. It is, to put it mildly, premature to turn the FAS into a law enforcement agency. Because if we do in full what Alexander Nikolaevich proposed, this means that in fact we are turning the FAS into a law enforcement agency. This is something you need to think about carefully. The role and significance of the FAS conclusions can be strengthened during the preliminary investigation and during the trial, this is absolutely certain, but the final assessment must be made by the court. This is the first one.
Now regarding the tightening of antimonopoly legislation. You and I know well, at least those who were involved in this, Alexander Nikolaevich knows exactly how antimonopoly legislation developed in those countries that are today called countries with developed market economies.
A more severe punishment than violation of antitrust laws could only be imagined for high treason and murder. I want everyone to hear this too. It is possible, of course, to liberalize all this, but this has nothing to do with the issue of administrative pressure on business. This is precisely related to what you said in conclusion, namely: that honest businesses suffer losses from unfair competition, that’s what we’re talking about.
Although, of course, here everything should be within the bounds of reason, within the framework of common sense. And I don’t rule it out, that is, not that I don’t rule it out, but I agree, let’s look at this again. If you think something is redundant, then, of course, you need to look at it carefully, but in general, you and I understand how important this topic is for the economy and for the future of the country. I say this without any exaggeration.
Now, regarding cartel agreements and deadlines, we can probably also look into it. But what do I want to say? These cartel agreements, as a rule, do not occur on their own; they are not only and not so much conspiracies on the market between specific business entities; as a rule, government authorities are also involved. This is the merging of business and the state in the bad sense of the word, which we must fight and which we must not allow in our economy, in our country.
I would like to conclude by saying that the list of instructions will be supplemented by the proposals that were made today.
I would like to thank you all very much for today’s work and once again draw your attention to the fact that we discussed one of the most important topics, without solving problems in which we will not be able to solve the problems facing the country.
The forum "Russia - a sports power", which took place in the Vladimir region from October 10 to 13, 2016, will undoubtedly go down in the history of domestic sports in modern times. On October 11, the central event of the forum was the meeting of the State Council for Physical Education and Sports under the President of Russia. It was chaired by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. In the Kovrovsky district, the head of state was met by Presidential Aide Igor Levitin, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Central Federal District Alexander Beglov and Governor Svetlana Orlova.
Sports, its problems and prospects are a strategic issue for the whole country. President Vladimir Putin also joined the discussion of the main topic of the forum, “Russia - a sports power,” which further increased its significance. He noted the symbolism of holding the forum in the Vladimir region. For all Russians, this land has special historical and cultural value, the head of state emphasized.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: - I hope you were able to see that the centuries-old history of the Vladimir region is harmoniously combined with its modern dynamic development. Indeed, this is a region with powerful industrial, cultural, educational and tourism potential. This potential is successfully developing, and using the example of the Vladimir region one can see how many positive changes have occurred in our country in recent years, including in the field of physical education and sports.
Request for healthy image life is one of the positive trends in the development of modern Russian society, noted Vladimir Putin. Over the past three years, the number of those who regularly visit sections and gyms has grown by almost a third and amounted to 43.5 million people. In the Vladimir region, supporting sports is the most important priority, Svetlana Orlova emphasized. Currently, 70 sports are being developed in the region. Among the Olympic sports are athletics and weightlifting, wrestling, artistic gymnastics, boxing, as well as non-Olympic sports: sambo, hand-to-hand combat and orienteering. Much has been achieved thanks to the federal project “Sport for Children”.
SVETLANA ORLOVA, GOVERNOR OF THE VLADIMIR REGION: “In our region alone, 70 gyms have been renovated, 68 playgrounds have been equipped in rural schools, 74 have been created sports club. And this is not the end of our work. We are just beginning to work on these issues."
Where sport appears, another life begins, Svetlana Orlova is sure. Crime is reduced, families become stronger, children get sick less. Therefore, the development of sports infrastructure is especially important for region 33 today. The nearest plans include the construction of an ice palace in Vladimir and indoor skating rinks in Aleksandrov and Sudogda.
VLADIMIR KISELEV, CHAIRMAN OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE VLADIMIR REGION: “Over the past three years, 8 large sports facilities have been built. About a thousand new sports grounds built in the Vladimir region. Including 86 in the city of Vladimir."
The “Olympic theme” became the key one. The head of state spoke about the results of the summer Olympic Games in Rio. Putin called the performances of Russian athletes worthy. According to him, despite the obstacles, the members of the national team demonstrated tremendous fortitude. However, in a number of sports, representatives of which were not even “selected”, serious work needs to be done. As for doping, there should be no “double standards”.
When we talk about the purity of sport, we mean not only politics, which, unfortunately, interferes with sport, but we also mean the fight against doping. Sport, of course, should be free of doping. We will fight for this purity of sport. But, of course, we must be sure of what and how is being done in this important area. We all need to know who is being checked, how they are checking, when, by what means, what are the results of these checks and what is done based on these results.
Vladimir Putin emphasized: of course, it is necessary to get rid of abuses in this area. There are athletes who have permission to use various drugs for so-called indications. Now we need to figure out what to do about it. Otherwise, in the future you may encounter the fact that all records and victories will only belong to people with chronic diseases.
“It is clear that both these athletes and these athletes must be protected. But we all need to understand what to do with this: maybe we can single them out in a special category, count their merits, points, seconds, achievements in a special way. I don’t know yet, I don’t have the answer, but the fact that we need to think about this is absolutely obvious.
According to Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, the current forum is a unique platform for discussing the prospects for the development of Russian sports. The first ten-year stage is completed, now the time has come for new tasks. They are already included in the federal program until 2020.
VITALY MUTKO, MINISTER OF SPORTS OF THE RF:“By 2020, the share of citizens involved in sports should reach 40% - that’s 60 million of our citizens. Naturally, this is a big challenge for us. But it should be noted that over these years we have already managed to meet all the main indicators. Over the past 7 Over the past 20 years, 20 million of our citizens have taken up sports and started playing them on a regular basis.”
After the plenary session, Vladimir Putin went to the Molodezhny sports complex, where the Sambo Days in the Vladimir Region festival is taking place. The President attended a standard sambo lesson for boys and girls; now such lessons have been introduced in a number of schools in the region as a pilot project. Then Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports. The head of state focused on the issue of involving the economically active population in sports. In particular, they discussed the re-creation of sports societies and the development of corporate sports, as well as the prospects for public-private partnerships in this area. The President cited the Dobrograd project as a successful example. This experience needs to be replicated, Vladimir Putin noted.
Olga Matveeva, Alexander Golubev