Plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
St Petersburg : – President Vladimir Putin said Russia had no need to use nuclear weapons to secure victory in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s strongest signal to date that Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two will not escalate into a nuclear war.
I am delighted to welcome all of you to the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
More than 12,000 people from more than 100 countries are taking part in the forum this year. They include shareholders and top managers of major corporations, recognised experts and analysts, political and public figures, and public officials.
Traditionally, the St Petersburg forum not only provides an opportunity to establish business contacts, agree on cooperation or launch promising projects, but also facilitates open discussions on topical trends in global and regional markets. It allows participants to examine the processes that are dynamically developing in today’s world through the prism of economic relations.
We can see that a real race is beginning between countries to promote their sovereignty at three key levels: the state, cultural values, and the economy. At the same time, countries that until recently were leaders in global development are striving to maintain their elusive role as hegemons, using any means necessary. In reality, there is nothing unusual here, when a country or a person tries to maintain or strengthen their positions in life, but resorting to lies for this purpose is unacceptable. Strengthening positions honestly is commendable, but doing so through lying is not.
Of course, it is evident that China currently holds the position of the world’s number one economy by a significant margin from the second place. India is the third largest economy in the world and a global leader in terms of development dynamics.
The voices of South Asian and African countries are becoming increasingly prominent, with their high birth rates and a low level of urbanisation so far, as well as rapid, catch-up economic growth. According to expert assessments, these countries will shape the global economic landscape closer to the middle of this century.
It is worth noting that today the world is undergoing explosive technological growth in almost all areas of life. This growth is transforming management, production processes, and even entire industries. It is evident that countries that not only produce new solutions, but also ensure their rapid and advanced implementation will be able to fully take advantage of technological progress.
Russia has demonstrated its high level of readiness and receptiveness to technological change. We can see how our financial sector, e-commerce, transport services, and public administration system have already undergone significant changes. Similar processes are now beginning to unfold in the Armed Forces, where a high rate of technological renewal is also required. This is the most important and defining issue for our country.
I am sure that at present, as much as in the long run, the role, weight and, I daresay, even the future of states depends on how effectively they are able to respond to global challenges, to use their potential, capabilities, and their competitive advantages, and work around their weaknesses, and maintain and strengthen partnerships with other countries.
Last February, I outlined the priorities for Russia’s development in my Address to the Federal Assembly; since then, a comprehensive programme of economic transformation has been formed, through the end of this decade and beyond.
The format of this forum warrants a focus on the economic aspect of our development, on the qualitative and structural changes that are taking place in our country, and which we intend to vigorously and purposefully support by directing financial, human and organisational resources at the federal, regional and municipal levels to this end, and through implementing national projects, which we discussed at length at the recent meeting of the Council for Strategic Development.
What kind of changes am I talking about?
First, in view of the international status of this forum, I will start with foreign economic relations, the presence that Russia strives to gain on international markets, and our plans for restructuring our exports and imports.
Despite all the obstacles we are facing and the illegitimate sanctions imposed against us, Russia remains one of the key participants in global trade and is rapidly expanding the new logistics and geography of cooperation. We are strengthening ties with the countries in Asia (a growth of 60 percent from 2020 to 2023), the Middle East (100 percent), Africa (69 percent) and Latin America (42 percent). I assume that my colleagues, the guests of this forum, the presidents of Bolivia and Zimbabwe, will touch on this subject in their remarks.
Today, the countries that are friendly to Russia – and as we can see, these are the countries we should primarily focus on, the rapidly growing economies that will determine the future of the global economy – account for three-quarters of our trade.
We continue to work productively with our EAEU partners, ensuring a balance of interests of all parties. Last year, the EAEU’s total GDP grew by 3.8 percent, and mutual trade, by 4.7 percent. Moreover, its structure has qualitatively improved, namely, the supply of finished high-tech products has grown. We will continue to actively support non-resource and non-energy exports from Russia. By 2030, these exports should grow by at least two-thirds compared to 2023.
Again, this is not just about scaling up exports in terms of tonnes, cubic metres or units of finished products, but about high-value-added goods. It is about bigger changes than Russian companies’ expansion to new regional markets and greater geography of cooperation. All of this is important, but today, it is not enough.
With regard to other countries, we are willing to come up with an offer of creating full-fledged technological or industrial partnerships that include the provision of a full-life cycle for goods and services replete with training of national staff, localising production, and providing engineering support, as well as technical service, insurance, and so on.
Such approach to cooperation that relies on equal partnership and technology and competency transfers rather than market control makes it possible to establish stronger ties between the countries, improves our companies’ sustainable positions on the global market, and enables them to establish lasting partnerships with their foreign partners. This is exactly how one of our leaders, Rosatom, the undisputed leader of the global nuclear industry with broad horizons and plans for the future, operates.
Clearly, foraying into new markets is hard without strong transport links. The Eastern Operating Domain is our key project with regard to China, and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Its third phase of upgrading was approved in April. By 2030, the Eastern Operating Domain’s capacity is expected to have increased to 210 million tonnes, and to 270 million tonnes by 2032.
We will keep a close eye on the southern direction. Plans for developing the North-South international corridor and the Azov-Black Sea corridor have been approved.
The Northern Sea Route is on track to become a global artery that enjoys high demand. Last year, it carried 36 million tonnes of cargo, and this number is projected to increase to over 150 million tonnes over time. To get there, we will continue to expand the Northern Sea Route infrastructure, and to build access roads to the Arctic ports. The leaders of the northern constituent entities of the Federation are to play a special role in this work. In this regard, we will form a State Council commission on the Arctic regions and the Northern Sea Route.
The cargo volume carried along international transport corridors across the Russian territory is expected to increase by 50 percent in 2030 compared to 2021, primarily due to increased competitiveness and the ease of use of these routes for businesses and carriers.
Development of the cross-border payment infrastructure is a separate issue which is important both for the exporters and importers. It is no secret that the reliability and trust in Western payment systems have been fundamentally undermined, by Western countries themselves. In this regard, I would like to note that last year the share of payments for Russian exports in the unfriendly states’ so-called toxic currencies was halved. At the same time, the share of the ruble in export and import transactions is growing. Today it is approaching 40 percent.
Over 2021–2023, the share of the ruble in payments for Russian exports almost tripled, went up to 39 percent. Tripled.
Together with our foreign partners, we will increase the use of national currencies in foreign trade payments and improve the safety and efficiency of these operations. Among other things, BRICS is working to establish an independent payment system that is not subject to political pressure, abuse and external sanctions interference.
Let me remind you in this context, that new participants have joined the BRICS activities this year: Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Thus, the share of our association in global GDP increased to 36 percent, and in the planet’s population to 46 percent. That said, BRICS has great potential for the accession of new members. Of course, we welcome and support this intention of interested partners to develop contacts with BRICS on different continents.
We will continue to develop relations within BRICS not only in the economic and finance sector, but also in security, humanitarian and cultural cooperation, and other areas. We will act considering global challenges and objective trends and, I want to emphasise this, the growing capabilities of national economies.
In this regard, let us talk about the second significant structural change. This is the achievement of a new quality and content of economic growth in Russia, and a change in the sectoral structure due to an active supply-side economy policy.
As you know, at the end of last year, Russia’s GDP growth amounted to 3.6 percent, and in the first quarter of this year, it amounted to 5.4 percent, so our rates exceed the world average. It is especially important that these dynamics are ensured primarily by non-resource sectors.
Let me also add for reference, that in 2023, 45.5 percent of economic growth was ensured by basic industries, as I said. What are they? Manufacturing, construction, logistics, telecommunications, agriculture, electricity and other housing and utilities services. And 61.6 percent was ensured by providing industries, which are trade, hotels and restaurants, financial and other services).
We have set the goal of ranking among the four largest economies in the world. By the way, according to certain information, including assessments by the World Bank – it made additional calculations the previous week and put Russia in fourth place. We are ahead of Japan now.
Russia is placed fourth by GDP and by purchasing power parity. As I said, ahead of Japan. But I’d like to stress the following. Of course, the point is not the GDP estimation and calculation system, not even the formal fourth place achievement. We are close by: Russia, the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan. The difference is small. Russia is ahead, but the difference is small. Given this, we do understand that leadership positions have to be permanently proven and consolidated. Other countries are not standing still either. It is important for us to ensure consistently high rates and quality of growth for a long term. This is our goal today. And it is not just the economies of Germany or Japan, which are next to us on the scale. The point is that other countries are moving forward too. Indonesia is close on everybody’s heels. The population is growing, the economy is growing. We should never forget it.
The solution to this challenge requires stronger financial, technological and personnel sovereignty, building up of production capacities and higher competitiveness of Russian products both in foreign markets and our own domestic market.
The development of such a model of supply-side economy should result, among other things, in the reduction of imports to 17 percent of GDP by 2030. Our dynamics are quite good. Look: in 1999, the share of Russia’s imports reached 26 per cent of GDP, and in 2023, it was 19 per cent of GDP, or 32 trillion rubles. That is, as I said, the dynamics are absolutely clear and positive.
I make it a point that the share of imports should be reduced, certainly not at the expense of administrative and prohibitive barriers but thanks to our own competitive production facilities, which are ready to satisfy domestic needs in the products of the manufacturing industry, agriculture, services, IT and many other sectors.
There are many successful examples of such strategy. For example, we have created a modern meat industry in the agro-industrial sector. Its capacity has almost doubled over 15 years. Today, Russia ranks fourth in the world in meat production and is increasing the supply of these products to foreign markets. By the way, Russia has reached 100 percent self-sufficiency in meat products. Meat consumption last year, in 2023, updated its record and exceeded 80 kilograms per person. For comparison, the world’s average is 42–43 kilograms per person.
I would like to repeat: Our country can and will produce more consumer goods, machine-tools, equipment, vehicles, medicines, and so on. To this end, we need to launch new projects, create modern jobs, and do it everywhere, in all regions of the country.
By 2030, investment in fixed capital should be up by 60 percent in real terms compared to the level of 2020. Everyone here is a knowledgeable specialist and is fully aware of what investment in fixed capital means, what it leads to, and what kind of prerequisites it creates for future growth in the medium and longer term.
I would like to emphasise that, in general, we have done pretty well in this most important area in recent years. In 2021, the planned investment growth stood at 4.5 percent, but was 8.6 percent in fact. In 2022, the plan was 9.5 percent, the actual figure was 15.9 percent. In 2023, the plan was 15.1 percent, but it actually turned out to be 27.2 percent, which is almost double the initial plan which is good.
Of course, investment activity should be properly funded. I have earlier said that we will set aside additional funds for industrial mortgage programmes and almost double the size of the Industrial Development Fund.
We will also increase the capacity of the Project Finance Factory at the VEB-operated Development Institute. Projects worth over 2 trillion rubles are being implemented under this programme. I suggest incrementally expanding the limits of the fund. At the first stage, we will increase it to 600 billion which will allow us to additionally support real sector projects worth up to 6 trillion rubles.
Increasing the volume of bank lending for technological sovereignty projects is important. We will fine-tune the taxonomy of such projects, i.e. line up the priorities for supporting and increasing investment in key industries and technological projects aimed at structural changes in the economy. We will increase the number of projects under this system, which will make it possible to attract additional funds which will go into implementing them.
The state is willing to share risks with investors. For example, the Foundation of Funds for Advanced Industrial and Infrastructure Projects is now operational. We have been discussing its parameters for a long time. The Government debated it, and we tried to coordinate it with the business community. People who were involved in this are here with us today.
Private investors are heavily investing in the Russian economy alongside the Russian Direct Investment Fund which is another area of our work.
The State Duma is considering draft laws that will expand the public-private partnership mechanism to include industries and the space sector. Please have these regulations adopted as soon as possible.
And another thing: to support investment activity, we naturally need to develop the capital market, increase its capacity and appeal for businesses and investors, and, of course, pay special attention to the safety and profitability of people’s funds invested in these assets.
Today there are almost 30 million so-called retail investors in our country – these are our citizens. The total volume of their assets increased by 50 percent over the year and totalled more than nine trillion rubles. At the same time, the demand for the shares of Russian companies has steadily exceeded the supply.
The goal has already been set: by the end of the current decade, the capitalisation of the Russian stock market should approximately double and make up two thirds of the gross domestic product.
I ask the Government, together with the Central Bank, to propose additional measures to encourage companies to list their securities on the stock exchange. Among other things, we should think about compensating the costs of initial public offerings for small technology companies.
This is an appeal to the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. The companies’ costs, including those related to bank posting, placement and so on, should be reduced as much as possible. And of course, it is necessary to ensure the inflow of so-called long money into the financial market, including long-term savings of citizens.
I would like to remind you that starting January 1 of this year, a special programme to support voluntary long-term savings of citizens has been launched. Now they are insured and co-financed by the state and can also be tax deducted. The programme has only recently been launched and is still lagging behind its targets. I propose to fine-tune it, namely, to increase the period of co-financing of citizens’ savings. Now it is three years. I believe it is right and reasonable to extend it to at least ten years.
At the same time, I ask the Government, together with the Central Bank, to consider additional incentives for businesses so that employers could also co-finance their employees’ savings under this programme. Now, given the shortage of labour, this would be appropriate and would even benefit the enterprises themselves, which would retain employees.
I would like to add that a new instrument – a savings certificate – will be introduced this year. It will make it possible for citizens to place funds in banks for a period of more than three years and at a higher interest rate than on ordinary deposits, although even now the deposit is quite solid, and our leading financial institutions are pushing this bar higher and higher. I don’t know whether this is justified or not, but it is certainly a bonus for deposit holders, so much is clear. But I would not like you, Mr Gref, along with Mr Kostin, to suck everything out of other banks like a vacuum cleaner. We will talk more about this later.
On January 1, 2025, contributory life insurance will be launched. What is it about? People’s insurance premiums can be invested in more profitable assets, such as shares, and bring benefits to the insurance buyer. That is, the principle of classical insurance and investment is combined, and in order to further guarantee the return of these funds, I propose providing state insurance in the amount of 2.8 million rubles, like for long-term savings.
Next, today there is an investment tax deduction mechanism in the regions. Thanks to it, companies that invest in development can decrease their income tax. Starting this year, the deduction is tied to projects of technological sovereignty and structural adaptation of the economy. This makes it possible to manage the quality of investments and stimulate capital expenditures in priority areas.
I am asking the Government to make sure that the deduction can be applied not only within one company, but also within a group of companies, and also to provide additional resources for the financing mechanism to replenish the tax deduction.
In this regard, I will remind of the decision that has been made: regions will be able to use part of the funds released after writing off budget loans to cover their shortfall in income due to the investment tax deduction. The Ministry of Finance has taken this step. I think it is justified in today’s conditions and will help all active participants in economic activity. I will elaborate on this later. In addition, I am confident that the regions will also support investors directly through their budgetary capabilities, which are also growing there.
Let me emphasise: what I have said is about the investment tax deduction in the Russian regions. In addition to it, a federal deduction will be introduced as part of a reconfiguration of the tax system, aimed at encouraging business investment in development, achieving greater social justice, and reducing inequality between citizens. In the near future, it is necessary to determine the parameters and volumes of the federal investment deduction together with business associations, so that it becomes an effective, widely used tool.
Going back to the regions’ efforts to support business activity, I would also like to note such mechanism as the regional investment standard. Its purpose is to ensure uniform principles for attracting investors throughout the country, based on businesses’ requests and recommendations, that is, to create a universal investment ecosystem in each region and a clear algorithm of actions for businesses to locate production facilities in.
Of course, these support measures are available to all of us and are in high demand. Today, the regional investment standard has been introduced in all the regions, and relevant specialists responsible for interaction with investors have been trained.
I would like to say words of gratitude to regional teams and business associations, as well as the Government, for their efforts. I am aware that there is a proposal to enshrine the investment standard in legislation. I suggest that the Government discuss this with the business community and the regions.
Importantly, our primary goal is to get this mechanism rolling and to use it widely in real life. This is our immediate goal. I believe the top-performing teams should be incentivised at the Government level.
Notably, launching the regional investment standard enabled many constituent entities of the Federation to make a leap in the investment climate national rankings. As is customary, its results are presented on the platform of our forum. I will say more about them later.
Over the past year, the exchange of experience and replication of leadership practices made it possible for 74 Russian regions to improve their integral index which is significantly more than last year. The republics of Buryatia and Mordovia, as well as the Lipetsk, Ryazan, and Arkhangelsk regions are among the regions with the best dynamics. I congratulate our colleagues on their top performance results and wish them every success as they go forward.
On top of that, we will focus on improving the national investment climate rankings, including sharing advanced solutions in this area with our BRICS partners. In addition, at a recent meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives we agreed to finalise the ranking compiling technique and to build it on the basis of the national model of targeted conditions of doing business. This is our improved and more objective answer to international rankings.
The new quality of the labour market is the third major structural change that we are looking for. Unemployment in Russia was at a record low of 2.6 percent in April. Importantly, we have brought down its structural component, meaning that youth unemployment and unemployment in the regions and localities where it was historically high is significantly down.
Fifteen to 20 years ago, the main question was how to find employment whereas now it is where to find employees. Given the circumstances, it is important to reconfigure the vocational education system to meet the labour market demands, to train specialists with up-to-date and sought-after skills, and to open opportunities for employees to advance their professional skills throughout their career.
For this purpose, we are making a forecast of the staffing needs of the national economy. We will transform the system of vocational training and development based on the forecast. By the end of the current decade, the share of qualified employment, i.e. specialists working in industries with high added value and, therefore, higher wages, should increase in our labour market. Let me reiterate: the objective of the human resource development system is to ensure this transformation.
The Professionalism federal project plays a major role here. It has already made it possible to start upgrading the material and technical base of colleges and technical schools, update educational programmes for aircraft- and ship-building, pharmaceuticals, electronics, defence and other industries. By 2028, about one million specialists in vocational professions will have to be trained for these sectors. We have already talked about this on many occasions, and I just want to remind you of it today.
As for higher education, in the next ten years Russia will have 40 university campuses with advanced conditions and opportunities for students to study, research, live and work. I would like to emphasise once again: we will assess the work of higher education institutions, Russian universities, colleges and technical schools by how much their graduates are in demand and how their salaries are growing.
At the same time, our economy needs not only young personnel, but also experienced, knowledgeable specialists who are competent in their profession and can teach their young colleagues a lot and become real mentors for them. In this regard, it is important to support the aspirations of people who have reached retirement age to continue working and do good. Their knowledge, skills and competences are an important resource for the economy and social sphere.
What are we talking about? We are talking about the level of wages for working pensioners. We have been discussing this topic for a long time. We just talked about this at a meeting with the governor of St Petersburg [Alexander Beglov], just before our meeting.
I want to talk about a decision that has been raised more than once during my meetings with citizens. Due to financial and budgetary constraints, pensions for working pensioners were not adjusted for inflation in previous years. During this time, this issue, which concerns millions of our citizens, has come to a head, and today we have the resources to begin to resolve it to meet people’s interests.
I propose resuming the practice of adjusting the pensions of working pensioners for inflation starting next year. (Applause.) Effective February 1, 2025 onwards, pensions will be increased annually not only for those who have already retired, but also for those who continue working. This will be truly fair.
I ask the United Russia Party together with the Government to prepare a relevant bill and pass it in the spring session. I know that all the other parties represented in parliament will certainly support this.
Further. The fourth structural change is directly related to higher economic efficiency. This indicator until the end of the current decade has been set in the May executive order. Given the demographic challenges that we have faced, the real personnel shortage, the most important condition for achieving high rates of economic growth is an increase in labour efficiency. This is the main resource.
Today I have already said about the need to increase investments and upgrade our enterprises. It is important to do this on a qualitatively new technological basis with the broad use of automation. Thus, Russia must be among top-25 countries of the world in terms of robotic process automation in the short period of time. It means installation of over 100,000 robots. That said, their production must be developed at an accelerated rate in our country based on our own technology, and no doubt, we have such an opportunity.
At the same time, it is also important to improve the efficiency of the existing equipment and technological processes. The key tool here is the adoption of prudent production methods. Such work is being carried out as part of a relevant national project. More than 6,000 enterprises and over 120,000 specialists are already involved in it.
This year is the final year for the current national project. It is necessary to extend the federal projects included in it within the framework of the new national project Efficient and Competitive Economy. Moreover, this practice should be expanded in order to involve in the projects of increasing labour productivity no less than 40 percent of medium-sized and large enterprises in the core non-resource sectors as well as all government and municipal organisations in the social sphere by 2030. For enterprises and companies, this will mean an increase in production, higher quality of services and more comfortable labour conditions and, of course, higher salaries for their employees. Let me remind you that in the next six years, they must grow at a rate higher than the gross domestic product.
The fifth structural change is a genuine digital platform revolution. In today’s environment, labour productivity is directly linked to digitalisation, to the use of artificial intelligence technologies. By 2030 we are to create digital platforms in all key sectors of the economy and social sphere. These tasks will be addressed under a new national project – the Data Economics.
I will add that within six years no less than 80 percent of Russian entities in the key economic sectors should switch over to Russian-made software in production and managerial processes. To support the IT industry, we will stipulate a number of measures, including taking into account the costs of domestic digital solutions with an increased coefficient when calculating profits tax, as well as establishing a reduced corporate profits tax rate of five percent for Russian IT companies. It will be effective until 2030, inclusive.
I ask the Government to elaborate additional steps to support domestic software designers, including identifying the level of purchases by companies partly owned by the state from small technology companies and start-ups. I repeat, this should be a guaranteed level. Purchases may not be lower than this level. We are already using this tool, and it works quite effectively. We need to continue using it.
And of course, it is important to actively apply digital solutions in the construction and housing and utilities sectors, using them to reduce the time and cost of projects. I would like to point out that over the past five years, the duration of the investment construction cycle has almost halved due to the elimination of administrative barriers and clearly excessive requirements. I will not list everything that has been done. Quite a lot has been done. Yet there is still much to work on. We will continue relevant efforts so that more roads, bridges, factories and plants are built in Russia and, of course, more comfortable affordable housing with high modern parameters of energy and resource efficiency.
In this regard, the housing and utilities sector and road construction have enormous potential, including the use of recoverable resources, the application of so-called smart solutions and ‘green’ standards based on advanced technologies.
In this connection, the sixth structural change is the accelerated, advanced saturation of economic sectors with modern technologies and innovations. This is one of the priorities. In six years, we plan to become one of the world’s top ten leaders in terms of research and development. Domestic expenditures for these purposes should increase to at least two per cent of GDP.
In this logic, a number of new national projects will be launched in the field of technological sovereignty in such key areas as production and automation equipment, new materials, chemistry, advanced space services, energy technologies and a whole range of others.
These projects will aim at a whole range of solutions: from popularisation of science and personnel training, support for research and starting serial production to the creation of guaranteed demand for high-tech products. I would like to emphasise that the projects will identify so-called backbone colleges, universities and research institutes. They should become the foundation for a rapid growth of new industries in our country.
Of course, legal base must be improved for the work of businesses and for companies to feel confident when investing in knowledge-intensive initiatives with a long horizon. I would like to note that we have enormous intellectual and creative potential, and it is important for us to fully realise it; and positive trends, of course, are emerging. For example, over the first four months of 2024 alone, almost 8,000 applications for inventions and 3,500 applications for utility models were filed in Russia, primarily in areas critically important for our country: metallurgy, energy, transport, and engine building.
It is critical to ensure that our developers’ intellectual property is protected, along with their solutions’ commercial effectiveness, so that their inventions are not shelved but go through the entire chain, from procurement to embodiment in a specific product. In particular, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of transferring patents for specific research results (as some experts believe) from the customer to their creators, as well as to small innovative enterprises and technology companies that know how to commercialise inventions and are ready to do so. However, as someone with basic legal education, I understand perfectly well where the “roadblock” is, and legal arbitrariness cannot be allowed. If someone pays for a certain invention, he or she is the owner, this is obvious. But it is necessary to create a soft market mechanism for using these inventions so that they are not shelved. Of course, we should all think about this together with the parliament and the Government.
In this context, the seventh critical structural change is a transformation to strengthen the role of small and medium-sized businesses in economic development. Today there are about 6.5 million small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. When six years ago we set a goal to increase the number of people employed in this sector up to 25 million, it seemed very difficult. Let me remind you that some of our colleagues laughed and said that this was an unrealistic task. Today we can say with confidence: this goal has been achieved ahead of schedule.
Our entrepreneurs, including the younger generations, are steadily gaining momentum, occupying the market, and launching manufacture of products that often surpass foreign analogues in their characteristics.
In addition, Russian businesses are aware that one’s own trademark is a token of quality and a solid economic asset. The number of applications for trademarks is growing for clothing and footwear, software, pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, perfumes and cosmetics, confectionery, and so on. Last year, more than 143,000 trademark applications were filed, twice as many as in the pre-Covid 2019.
Incidentally, the trademark registration process in Russia is one of the most convenient and fastest in the world, it is fully digitised. The application review period is 4 months, and following that period an electronic protection certificate is issued.
Importantly, distinctive regional local brands are increasingly being registered. This is, of course, a tribute to the culture and traditions of our peoples, evidence of entrepreneurs’ pride in their homeland, the region where they do business. And of course, businesses see that people want to buy domestic goods produced in Russia.
By the way, many of the regional brands belong to the so-called creative industries. More than half of the Russian regions are doing a lot to promote their development. I ask that as early as the spring parliamentary session, we adopt a federal law that will set a clear legal framework for creative industries, and in the future will make it possible to establish common standards for their support.
We will create every condition for small and medium-sized companies in our country to grow even faster. We will improve the effectiveness of existing support measures, and we will offer new ones in addition to them.
I would like to point out that so-called marketplaces play a significant role in the development of emerging small businesses. Together with Russian Post, they build a modern infrastructure, a kind of circulatory system for the delivery of domestic products, allowing companies even in remote towns and villages to gain access to the large market of Russia and the entire Eurasian Economic Union.
I ask my colleagues in the Government to lay special focus on the development of such commodity flows when implementing the updated strategy of Russian Post and, in general, when shaping national projects.
I would like to add that to help domestic businesses promote their products, a nationwide ‘Know Our Own’ competition has been launched. This year, the number of applications for the competition has increased by 150 percent, and they came from all regions of the Russian Federation. In short, the competition is growing and has proved to be a real business lift.
Importantly, such successful practices should be actively applied at the regional level. I draw the attention of my colleagues, regional governors, to this.
I would like to highlight one more point. Virtually all of the competition participants and, in general, many domestic entrepreneurs support the servicemen and veterans of the special military operation, their families, relatives and friends of our heroes, sending their products to the military units, buying things and equipment, and helping hospitals. Such a high awareness of their social mission, responsibility, patriotism in the best sense of the word is certainly very valuable and deserves great respect. Thank you.
The next, eighth most important structural change is related to unlocking the potential of Russia’s regions. This is about a new geography of development, the creation of growth points in cities and towns across the country, opportunities for people not only in the capital cities, but also in small towns and villages to acquire a profession, find a well-paid job or run their own business, fulfil themselves, live and raise their children in comfortable and modern conditions.
Next year, new national projects and state programmes will be launched to develop the education and healthcare systems, sports and culture, and to improve the environmental well-being of our towns and villages.
We obviously need an economic base for all our measures in the social sphere and demography, for the implementation of federal and regional programmes. It is formed locally, in Russian regions. We will be enhancing the economic capacities of the regions.
In this regard, plans are being discussed, including in the Government, to move the head offices of our largest corporations and state-owned companies to the regions of the Russian Federation. The idea undoubtedly requires elaboration, but it deserves consideration and support. There are positive examples of this. For example, RusHydro’s relocation from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk.
And of course, it is important to concentrate resources on promising growth points. This is exactly the approach envisaged in the master plans for the Far Eastern and Arctic regions. We have agreed to approve similar programmes and documents for another 200 towns and cities. These will include all regional centres, as well as cities that play an important role in strengthening Russia’s technological sovereignty.
To ensure the regions’ vigorous and long-term development, it is essential to eliminate limitations in the energy sector and in the transport system, and to build and repair roads, engineering and utility networks. The Russian regions receive infrastructure budget loans for the implementation of such projects. As I have already said, their volume will be increased next year.
This portfolio will grow by at least 250 billion rubles annually, and in total, by the end of 2030, the amount of infrastructure budget loans issued will amount to 2.5 trillion rubles. Moreover, the funds will be distributed not only based on caps for each region, but also based on the results of the competition of regional and inter-regional projects.
There is one more decision. It has already been taken, and it will support regional finances. We are about to write off two-thirds of the previously issued budget loans. Importantly, the constituent entities of the Federation will need to use the freed-up funds to support investment, including the creation of industrial parks and the infrastructure in the priority development areas, as well as infrastructure, namely, to renovate housing and utilities, to build roads and bridges, to upgrade public transport and to relocate residents of the structurally deficient housing, to fund master plan events, and so on. I would like the Government to work out the details of this mechanism in a dialogue with the regions, and do so soon.
Next, in addition to breaking through the infrastructure bottlenecks, it is necessary to widely bring inefficiently used land plots with abandoned and unfinished buildings back in the economy. There are tens of thousands of such sites in the country. With a proper approach, they will serve people and bring profit to business. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, there are over 181,000 derelict and abandoned buildings and structures in Russia. More than a third of them are not officially registered, and only a fifth of them have titles.
Sometimes, abandoned territories are used as dumps which are usually illegal, and municipalities have no budget to liquidate them. I propose the following solution. If an entrepreneur is willing to liquidate such a dump at his own expense, we can think about giving him a land plot free of charge for use or ownership.
I would like the Government to hold appropriate consultations with the constituent entities of the Federation and to review which ones are owned by federal agencies and which ones are abandoned and unused. It is important to work through every detail and avoid creating bureaucratic barriers, to prevent abuse or “stealing” land plots from cities and towns. Of course, this needs to be thought through, but we absolutely need to do something about it.
I am positive that an effective solution to this issue will not only improve the urban environment and make life more comfortable, but will also directly contribute to increasing capitalisation of urban assets and attract small and medium-sized businesses, as well as developers with interesting residential development projects.
In this regard, I’d like to say a couple of words about mortgage loans. As you know, we have extended the family mortgage programme until 2030. All Russian families with children under six are eligible for a preferential loan with a six percent interest.
I propose additional special solutions in the social sphere for families who live or want to buy housing in small towns or in regions where housing construction is still insufficient. There, families with two children will be able to take advantage of a six-percent family mortgage regardless of their children’s age. The only condition is that at least one child in the family must be a minor at the time of the mortgage formalisation.
And one more point. The same preferential mortgage terms will be in effect in all Russian regions for each family set to build a house. This is particularly important for big families with many children.
I ask the Government to launch these programmes starting with July 1 of this year.
I should add that in order to improve the look of our cities, we will continue the nationwide competition of best projects of a comfortable urban environment. This programme is really popular, and people offer a good feedback. We will also launch a programme for construction and improvement of embankments and parks.
Restoration and reconstruction of cultural and historical heritage sites will be a separate track. By 2030, at least a thousand of such sites across the country must be put in order, given a second life, so that they serve people, serve to preserve and promote our identity, make towns and villages more beautiful, and increase their tourist attractiveness.
The development of domestic tourism is one of the priorities in our long-term strategy. In six years, the share of the tourism industry in the gross domestic product should increase to 5 percent, and the number of trips across the country with hotel accommodation should grow to 140 million people. We will create comfortable and affordable conditions for holidays, including the construction of hotels and small campsites, ski resorts and amusement parks.
Our economic and social policy measures must be not only effective, but also fair. And in this sense, the next, ninth structural shift is to reduce poverty, reduce inequality, and increase the incomes of Russian families, which, in turn, has a direct effect on the quality of people’s life, on increasing domestic demand and the domestic market capacity. All instruments, including payments to families with children, tax deductions, and social contracts, should be used to deliver on this objective.
Without a doubt, as I said earlier today, the main tool is to ensure that salaries grow at a rate that exceeds inflation. There is an important decision that concerns adjusting the minimum wage which, as of now, exceeds the subsistence minimum, as the Constitution says, and we will tie its adjustment in with the overall growth of wages in the economy as we move forward.
Starting next year, we will introduce a ratio of the minimum wage to the median wage received by the majority of the employees in our economy. In 2025, the minimum wage will amount to 48 percent of the median wage, thus exceeding 22,000 rubles per month, meaning that it will grow by about 15 percent more. Then the ratio with the median wage will increase so that, as agreed, the minimum wage will amount to at least 35,000 rubles a month by 2030.
Finally, the tenth structural change, which is essentially integral, is about improving the quality of life of Russian families. This was discussed in detail in the Address to the Federal Assembly. To reiterate: all areas are critically important in this regard. That includes supporting child birth and large families, protecting motherhood and childhood, increasing the availability of long-term care for the elderly and people with disabilities, improving the education and healthcare systems, and the quality of life.
These changes should manifest in longer life expectancy, with an emphasis on active and healthy life and, of course, forming equal opportunities to help younger generations rise to their full potential and thus improve the standard of living of Russian families.
The global economy has entered an era of major changes. A multipolar world with new growth centres, investment and financial ties between states and companies is taking shape. Russia’s economy is responding to these challenges and is also changing dynamically, as it gains more strength and stability.
To a great extent, the credit for this goes to our workers, engineers, managers and, of course, entrepreneurs, who are increasing investment in growing their companies, enterprises, cities and regions, and bringing to the fore values such as responsibility, trust, and service to their people and their country.
We will increase the support for positive changes in society and the economy. Our long-term systemic plans to strengthen the financial, technological and human resources sovereignty of our country and to improve the business climate are focused on achieving national development goals. In this work, we are open to the broadest possible cooperation with all interested partners, including foreign companies, countries, and integration associations.
