A Russian New Deal: Putin Outlines Ambitious New 2024 Development Plan for Country
Today, the President signed a decree setting the national development targets up to 2024. It's a large-scale program of social, scientific, and technological development.
Our observer Tatiana Remizova has studied the document in detail.
- Tatiana, what goals are set by Putin for the new Government?
- Ernest, the new 'May Decree' depicts the goals set by the President during the Address to the Federal Assembly but not only that.
The main focus for the next 6 years: increasing the size of the populations, raising the citizens' life comfort level. By 2024, life expectancy in Russia should grow to 78 years and it should reach 80 by 2030. Salaries should grow and pension increases should be higher than the inflation level. The number of those living in poverty needs to decrease by two-fold. 5 million families annually will have the opportunity to improve their living conditions. Russia will join the world's top five economies with economic growth rates above the world’s level while keeping inflation at no more than 4%.
By October 1st, new programs will be developed in the following 12 areas: demography, healthcare, education, housing and urban environment, ecology, safe and quality motorways, labor productivity and employment support, science, digital economy, culture, small and medium enterprises, international cooperation and export. Each national project has its own task list.
- The majority of these national projects involve each one of us, such as healthcare, education, housing. What changes should we expect?
- A lot of it is already implemented, such as financial aid to families with new children. But there are also innovations, such as creating conditions for working mothers. For this, by 2021, it's necessary to achieve 100% daycare availability for children under 3. In healthcare, it's lowering the death rate by methods that include reducing staff shortage in polyclinics and providing physical check-ups at least once per year. Housing development needs to reach no less than 120 million sq.m. annually, while the mortgage interest rate should drop below 8%.
The number of those involved in small and mid-size business should grow to no less than 25 million. Non-resource products export should grow to $250 billion annually. Global infrastructure, development of east-west and north-south transport corridors, construction of roads from Europe to Western China. Development of the Northern Sea Route, the Baikal-Amur Mainline, and the TransSib.
Russia needs to join the top ten countries with the best education levels and the top five leaders in research and development. Spending on digital economy will grow three-fold.
An accent on ecology: removal of non-sanctioned junkyards in cities, full-scale decrease of air pollution in large industrial clusters, ecological recovery of Volga and Lake Baikal.
- Those are quite ambitious but very specific tasks. We're now expecting the Cabinet of Ministers to execute them. Thank you, Tatiana. This was our observer, Tatiana Remizova.