RUSSIA, May 3 - Mikhail Mishustin: "On the whole, we can see positive trends in the development of the district. Last year, investment in fixed assets reached almost eight percent. There is also growth in industry. The volume of domestically produced goods has increased."

Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today, at a meeting of the Government Commission, we will discuss key issues in the development of the North Caucasus. We are holding this meeting in the district with the participation of representatives of all its constituent entities to assess the situation in detail.

The President has noted that the North Caucasus republics have every opportunity to maximise their rich potential and ensure the growth of key economic indicators.

I have just seen this for myself while visiting the Caucasus Investment Exhibition. It showcases interesting projects in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, industry, tourism, energy, construction and transport. There are opportunities for increasing domestic production and for developing new logistics routes.

Thank you very much for the invitation to visit it.

This is a solid foundation for systematic joint work and for implementing the tasks the President sets us.

Alexander Novak will speak about the exhibition in more detail.

On more than one occasion, the President has emphasised the special significance of the North Caucasus for our multi-ethnic country.

At the last commission meeting, we identified a number of problems in healthcare, education and certain industries, primarily in housing and utilities, where we needed to stabilise the operation of utilities, increase payment collection rates and put settlements in order so that these difficulties would not hold back regional development. Of course, the pandemic and restrictions from unfriendly countries have also had an impact on the socioeconomic situation in the North Caucasus.

I spoke in detail about the situation in the Federal District during last week’s four meetings with the governors as well as during my trip to Karachayevo-Circassia where we talked to employees of many businesses and their executives (by the way, I see them here today).

These meetings are essential for making well-balanced decisions with consideration for the opinions of our people, that is, the feedback that the President is talking about.

Overall, we are seeing positive dynamics in the development of the North Caucasus. Much has been done to enhance the investment appeal of its regions. Last year, investment in fixed assets reached almost 8 percent. Industry is also on the upsurge. The region is producing more goods of its own making, as we saw today on the stands at the exhibit.

Unemployment has decreased substantially – to about 10 percent. In the past three years, it went down another 3.6 percent. The number of employed people has increased by almost 4.5 percent and today surpassed 4 million people.

The President noted that we should evaluate any project in the North Caucasus by important criterion like the creation of new jobs. The current changes in the employment structure point to employers’ higher need for qualified labour.

Credit for these results largely goes to the support by the President and the Government, and of course, the work of the regional governors that have shown responsibility in resolving these problems.

They have created conditions for the regions to bring in revenue themselves, while budget funds have become a guarantee for attracting private capital into new projects. Economic development models were the main tool that we decided to introduce two years ago. They made it possible to synchronise the efforts of the Government, the Ministry of Economic Development, other departments, the regions and state corporations.

Models were made for every region in the Federal District. We discussed them for a long time at many strategic sessions. I would like to thank Alexander Novak and naturally, Yury Chaika, the Plenipotentiary Envoy, for their work – we produced all this together. We are also grateful to the esteemed regional governors. The managerial decisions we adopted after this analytical work have produced today’s breakthrough projects.

In all regions, we determined five key issues and five cluster-type breakthrough projects. The latter envision dozens of investment sub-projects, mostly, in strong areas like the agro industry and the hospitality industry. This is the case if you take it as a whole.

More to be posted soon...