Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo: REUTERS
On Monday, Vladimir Putin met with the Governor of the Kurgan Region, Vadim Shumkov. The conversation turned out to be unusual: the regional official not only reported on the state of affairs on the ground, but also gave specific advice on how to restart the economy in other poor regions. The President was interested and promised to send to the Ministry of Economy in search of help to specify the issue.
– I’d like to start our meeting with your assessment of how advanced development areas work. After all, we once created them in order to better formulate the conditions for single-industry cities,” Putin began at the meeting.
“The advanced development area itself is doing pretty poorly without other comprehensive measures,” the governor answered honestly, then explained why.
Recall that priority development areas began to appear in the country in 2013. Due to reduced taxes, simplified reporting and other benefits, the authorities decided to attract business to regions that are lagging behind in the economy.
But, as Shumkov pointed out, tax incentives alone are not enough to increase production. We also need industrial parks, when all the infrastructure has already been created in advance to launch new factories.
– A combination, when an entire prefabricated site with networks or a prefabricated workshop is offered, part of the equipment is subsidized, while there are also tax benefits -this is flying-, summarized the regional headline.
The governor immediately called for an extension of the terms of the tax breaks for businesses. This should further stimulate investment.
– I consider proposals on how to make this system more efficient in terms of time and demand. The Ministry of Economic Development, together with you, will have to work on this issue, Putin supported.
The second measure: the reduction of unnecessary officials. Five years ago, there were 418 (!) Different municipalities in the small Kurgan region. Village councils, village councils, district councils… All this still did not work, since the endless officials had neither real powers nor money.
Now all this has been reduced to 24 municipal districts. They laid off 6,500 different employees, which saved the region 1.5 billion rubles a year.
– Three-year own revenues increased by 143%. The ratio between public debt and own revenues fell from 93% in 2018 to 57%.
And in the region, the families of the mobilized were placed under guardianship.
– There is a wide range of problems, from gasification, roof repair, apartment renovation, medical problems, one-time financial assistance, everything is resolved in a timely manner. For these purposes, the budget made a social portrait of each family with the problems that need to be addressed, – said Shumkov.
“This idea of a passport for each mobilized family is very good and I think it will have to be replicated throughout the country,” the head of state approved.
At the end of the meeting, Putin drew attention to “socially significant diseases.”
– I ask you to pay special attention to the fight against drug addiction. It’s just that the law enforcement media alone cannot solve the problem here, we need to work together,” the president drew attention.
