Government meeting

Agenda: Concept for Increasing Employment of People with Disabilities, introducing a broader state support framework for the labour market, additional funding for the educational lending programme, budget allocations for balancing regional budgets, helping victims of vast floods in the regions, upgrading transport infrastructure for educational institutions.

Mikhail Mishustin's opening remarks

Marat Khusnullin's report on upgrading transport infrastructure for educational institutions

Excerpts from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

Let me begin by saying a few words about the decisions we have made.

In keeping with the President's instructions, the Government has approved the Concept for Increasing Employment of People with Disabilities. It is designed to run until the end of this decade. There is also a plan setting forth specific measures to implement it.

Among other things, this concept seeks to create an enabling environment for persons with disabilities to benefit from training and find an occupation. It is essential that we remove the barriers they face when trying to find a job, considering that the active push to adopt new technology and the fact that news forms of employment are taking shape, including remote work - all this creates additional opportunities for persons with disabilities when it comes to finding a job and fulfilling their professional aspirations.

The concept covers this agenda in all its aspects. It also provides for enabling persons with disabilities to create and operate their own businesses. We will keep working on making secondary vocational training and higher education, as well as the possibility to master new skills and jobs better accessible for them. It is essential that people get quality support and assistance after graduating when they start searching for a job and getting used to a new place.

The Government has been paying special attention to persons with disabilities among special military operation participants. In order to be able to promptly address their needs in terms of employment, we must make sure that the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation develops closer ties with regional employment offices and work on a case-by-case basis.

Government agencies at all levels, as well as educational and civil society institutions and the business community will have to undertake coordinated efforts so that this concept can be materialised. We must take into account what people with disabilities think and prioritise this feedback, just as the President has been saying all along. I would like to ask you to keep a close eye on this matter.

The next item on our agenda deals with supporting the labour market.

The President has said that every region must offer employment opportunities so that people can live up to their potential.

The Government has embarked on a system-wide effort to enable our people to find jobs. There is a state programme to this effect. It is designed, among other things, to upgrade regional employment offices. We have already allocated about 3.5 billion roubles for this purpose, which covered expenses for renovating almost 440 institutions of this kind and buying the equipment they need.

In order to have even more offices helping people searching for a job, we expanded this government support framework by taking a decision to extend subsidies to module, quickly erectable structures. This way, communities across the country will get over 140 additional modern and people-friendly employment centres where people of various trades and skills will accompany the applicants in search of employment.

I also wanted to discuss vocational training.

The President has said that national development would be impossible unless we guarantee up-to-date, quality and accessible educational opportunities across all regions. Ensuring equal opportunities for every child and enabling them to unlock their talent and build a track record of success is an utmost priority.

The Government has taken a wide range of measures for delivering on this objective, including by offering educational loans at a 3 percent interest rate. Today, people can apply for these subsidised loans to pay tuition fees in higher education institutions and vocational training colleges. We have already allocated about 2 billion roubles to this effect.

We will now earmark over 1 billion roubles more for this purpose. By offering these subsidies to the banks, we will enable over 145,000 students to benefit from low interest rates on their educational loans.

This would be a major factor for young people in Russia. They will be able to acquire new knowledge, master a profession and go on to develop advanced solutions and introduce the latest inventions in manufacturing, healthcare, electronics and many other domains. This would be instrumental in terms of developing the national economy in all its sectors and reinforcing the country's technological sovereignty.

And now, let's get on to our agenda. There are several regional issues today.

As per the President's instructions, we will allocate over 10 billion roubles in additional assistance to nine Russian regions.

This money will be distributed among the republics of Altai, Ingushetia, North Ossetia - Alania, Tyva and Khakassia, the Kamchatka Territory and the Orel Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Ulyanovsk Region.

They will be able to use these funds to balance their budgets and to address goals of significance for people's lives and regional development.

I would like to say a few words about assistance to the flood affected regions. Last spring, such emergencies hit the Kurgan, Tyumen and Orenburg regions. The latter was damaged especially badly. Many people lost their houses and property.

The President pointed out on several occasions that it is important to supply people with everything they need and to promptly respond to their requests.

Today, the Government will allocate an additional 1.2 billion roubles to the Orenburg Region. These funds will be used to cover the region's spending on relief payments to nearly 12,000 people who have lost all of their possessions.

Nearly 10 billion roubles were previously allocated from the regional and federal budgets for emergency one-time assistance to people and for helping them buy basic necessities such as household, water supply and heating equipment, furniture and many other things.

We must continue to work in a coordinated manner to deal with all the problems people may encounter.

Another issue concerns the new academic year, which began this week. Millions of children went to schools and kindergartens, and older children went to colleges and universities. They are there to acquire knowledge and new skills.

The Government is dealing with this vital sphere comprehensively, including through the development of transport infrastructure. There is the Safe Quality Roads national project, which we are implementing on the President's instructions. Under it, we are not only building modern motorways, bridges and overhead roads. We also address local projects, such as the improvement of routes towards educational establishments in order to make trips to schools or recreation areas as comfortable as possible for the rising generation and teachers, of course.

Last year, we improved about 2,500 kilometres of roads in accordance with standards, and we plan to improve over 3,000 kilometres of roads this year.

This includes not only repairing the road surface but also attention to safety measures, such as safe pedestrian crossings, modern street lights, parapets and road signs. We also take measures to prevent road traffic injuries among children, which include road safety education, traffic rules contests, and road safety conversations at schools.

Marat Khusnullin is supervising these efforts systemically. Mr Khusnullin, please report on the situation in this sphere.

: Mr Mishustin, colleagues.

Our children's safety is one of our priorities and road conditions play a key role here. As we prepared for the new academic year, we paid special attention to fixing up connections to educational and leisure facilities. We are working on the Safe and Quality Roads national project in almost every Russian region.

This year, we plan to upgrade more than 920 roads to educational facilities, stretching for a total of 3,100 km. Based on the current pace, I am certain that the works will be completed by the end of the year.

It is important that, to ensure a high degree of safety, we carry out renovation as a complex measure. In addition to renovating the road surface, we provide the roads with all necessary infrastructure such as pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, barriers, pavements and bus stops.

Also, for the benefit of children's road safety, we organise regular lessons to raise awareness about traffic rules and conduct on the road. The Safe Roads annual national competition is part of this national project. More than 15 million schoolchildren have taken part in this national project in the past four years. The fifth competition will take place from 24 September to 27 October. The Ministry of Education and regional officials are largely involved in this project.

More complex work on upgrading school connections and roads to other educational facilities takes place almost everywhere in the country, and great progress has been made. I will mention a few specific examples. Twenty-five kilometres of roads leading to children's educational and leisure facilities have been renovated in St Petersburg by this academic year. They include roads to such facilities as the International School of the Herzen University and the Children's Arts Palace.

In Magas, Ingushetia, the main street, Chakhkiyeva Street, where two schools and an education centre are located, has been renovated.

In Aniva, Sakhalin Region, two sections of Kalinina Street have been brought up to standard. It is the city's main transport artery that is part of the road to a children's art school and several sport schools.

We continue to upgrade public transportation under the Safe Quality Roads national project. This measure is to boost road safety and passenger comfort as they commute to studies and work and go about their day. Some of the new buses have been designated for school routes. It is a measure we exercise extensively. Our thanks go to our colleagues from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and everybody involved.

In total, 64 regions have already received more than 5,000 new busses, trolleybuses trams and electro busses over seven months. In general, we will supply about 7,400 vehicles this year.

This year we will complete the Safe Quality Roads project and come over to the new national project Infrastructure for Life. We will continue our work in all necessary areas and try to keep the standards high.

I would like to point out that in recent years we have been monitoring school construction and renovation in headquarters mode - the Government together with the regions.

By September 1, 132 new schools for 106,000 pupils have opened their doors in Russia. By the end of the year, we plan to complete construction of approximately 150 more schools in 65 regions.

In addition, over 360 schools have been put into operation after major repairs by the beginning of the school year. A variety of the federal support measures, including the Stimul programme help in building facilities.

In conclusion, I want to underscore that repairing roads to schools and building of educational establishments proper is an inseparable part of creating safe and quality conditions for our children's education. A reliable road infrastructure around schools means parents' confidence in their children's safety on their way to school. Further, modern schools are well equipped and create a favourable atmosphere for all-round development and training of the generation to come.

With that in mind, I want to express my gratitude to the President for this major programme and to you, Mr Mishustin, for your constant control and attention paid to this work. Thank you. I would also like to say that we have already put together a plan for next year's road work by September 1 and we are already working on it.

Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you very much, Mr Khusnullin. Please, keep all the actions under personal control. Formation of a convenient transport infrastructure for our educational institutions will help in solving many practical problems: it will be easier to bring children to schools, to provide them with food, to equip them with educational and sports equipment to study and develop properly. Indeed, they are the future of our country.

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