/ world today news/ President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and talked about the new world order, the stability of the Russian economy and the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The chosen strategy worked
“Speaking from this rostrum last year, I outlined my vision of the challenges facing Russia and virtually the entire world. And I detailed our actions designed to ensure confident, long-term, sovereign development of the country. Today, dear Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, friends, today we can confidently say: the strategy chosen then by both the state and the business of Russia has worked,” said Putin.
GDP growth will be below two percent by the end of the year, which will allow Russia to maintain its place among the world’s leading economies, the president explained.
“In April this year, the gross domestic product grew by 3.3% on an annual basis. And by the end of the year, it will add more than a percent,” added Putin.
For the well-being of Russians
From January 2024, the minimum wage will be indexed by 18.5 percent, the head of state said. By 2030, in nominal terms, the minimum wage should double.
“In 2022, 1.7 million people were lifted out of poverty, and the poverty rate was below the double-digit limit, amounting to 9.8 percent,” Vladimir Putin said
Real disposable incomes have risen, the Russian leader pointed out.
“Financial opportunities allow the state to maintain a course of reducing poverty and inequality. We especially support the poorest citizens. And if you look at their incomes, they have increased by 25 percent, and the poverty level is 9.8 percent,” he added he.
But their incomes are still too low, but the main thing is the trend, he added.
“I offer benefits for a child up to a year and a half, as well as a one-time child allowance for the entire period of time for which they are assigned, regardless of whether the family’s income has increased or not,” added Vladimir Putin
The president proposed that childcare benefits should be maintained even for part-time workers.
“Mortgages are also growing at a faster pace – 18 percent plus growth,” he pointed out.
A serious source of inflow is the long-term savings of citizens.
“We must make sure that our citizens can invest and earn at home,” Vladimir Putin believes.
About business inspections
As the president recalled, there is a moratorium on business inspections. Last year, for example, they were held by 20 percent on an annual basis.
For decades, the thresholds for major and especially major economic crimes have not changed, Putin considers it necessary to increase them at least twice. In addition, he instructed to consolidate the rules on the right to carry out inspections, where they remain, only by the relevant departments.
“I am asking the government, together with the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to further enshrine this provision in the legislation and strictly monitor its implementation. This is very important, otherwise there is no point in our work. As a well-known comedian of ours said at the time, we must work it out -carefully the so-called legal technique, so that every word can be understood,” Putin said
Some enterprises do not need verification at all if their activities are not related to critical risks for the population, the president added.
Putin offered business amnesty for forced currency violations.
On the multipolar world and the collapse of colonialism
“The inherently ugly neo-colonial world system has ceased to exist and the multipolar world order is being strengthened. This is an inevitable process,” added Putin.
Some countries in the world do not want others to have an alternative to their planes, banking services and others, Putin added. They do not need competitors and try to “cancel” opponents, but this will not happen.
“With some of these countries, whose leaders often do not succumb to simple external pressure, but are guided not by foreign interests, but by their own national interests, the volume of our mutual trade has grown not even by a few tens of percent, but by several times” , added Putin.
He added that these volumes are now continuing to grow. About 90% of payments with EAIS countries are in rubles, with China – more than 80% in rubles and yuan.
Putin also drew attention to the dynamics of non-oil and gas revenues – plus 9.1%. According to him, this is important and shows that the “real sector” is developing and adapting.
“The Russian part of the audience probably remembers and knows, we always said: ‘When are we going to get off the oil and gas needle’?” Well, this trend is gradually gaining momentum,” Putin concluded.
On macroeconomic sustainability
The country maintains a balanced budget policy, unemployment and inflation are close to historically low levels. This resilience, Putin noted, has become Russia’s competitive advantage.
“Practice has shown that we were not in vain looking for macroeconomic stability,” he added.
Inflation in Russia is lower than in Europe. The country maintains a balanced budget policy, unemployment and inflation are close to historic lows, Putin continued.
“Unemployment is 3.3 percent. It has never been so low, Vladimir Putin pointed out
The authorities did not allow price jumps, there is a federal budget deficit, but it is insignificant. Russia is obliged to increase spending on strengthening the country’s defense and security, this must be done to protect sovereignty. At the same time, state finances are balanced, the Russian leader said.
On the departure of Western companies
“If at the beginning our entrepreneurs were very worried about the departure of Western companies, now they are occupying vacant places in shopping centers and opening their own stores,” said Vladimir Putin
At the same time, the authorities did not close the doors to those Western companies that want to return.
“You know very well that we have never kicked anyone out of our market, out of our economy. On the contrary, we suggested that they weigh the pros and cons, think carefully about their Russian partners and the possible consequences of such a step. Each of our partners had the right to election” Vladimir Putin
Local companies are taking advantage of the current situation. Last year, Russian manufacturers filed more than 90,000 trademark applications.
“In addition to clothing and shoes, these are mainly software, household chemicals, perfumes, cosmetics, etc. I will not reveal a secret if I say that in the course of communication with representatives of the local business circles, they increasingly want us not to let back the withdrawn foreign companies”, he added.
About the prospects of the Russian economy
The key strategic task is not simply to compensate for the decline in GDP or to replace foreign business, not to “wait out” the recession, but to prepare for an irreversible, deep transformation of the world economy.
“What is important and what tasks need to be solved?” One can rightly be proud of record unemployment, but this achievement has a flip side – difficulties with the shortage of personnel. Therefore, the first proposal is to improve the structure of employment,” said Vladimir Putin
Every village should have the opportunity to find a job, the head of state stressed.
“We need to give people more opportunities to get a new specialty, including a technical one,” added Vladimir Putin
He stressed the need to develop a supply-side economy that itself generates demand.
It is important that educational institutions establish special performance indicators, the main of which is the quality of employment of graduates. It is also necessary to prepare a five-year forecast for the development of the economic sectors. For business, it is necessary to create incentives to train people while securing jobs, Putin said.
The president asked the government to speed up the process of returning assets to Russia, especially in key industries. This should be done by December this year.
About the situation with the VSU counteroffensive
Ukraine already uses strategic reserves, but they have nowhere achieved their goals, the head of state noted. The loss ratio was one to ten, with 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles lost, he cited excerpts from military reports.
“The armed forces of Ukraine have no chance,” concluded Vladimir Putin.
According to the president, Kiev will soon stop using its own equipment – “it will not wage war for so long”. At the same time, Russia increased the production of military products by 2.7 times during the year.
“We have a very large margin of safety,” he is convinced.
The president recalled that the military actions in the neighboring country started due to the fault of the people who staged a coup in Kiev.
“The war in Ukraine, in the south-eastern part of Ukraine, was started by the Ukrainian regime with the support of their patrons in the West in 2014. But nobody tries not to talk about it in the West. But I must remind that aviation, tanks, artillery were used against Donbass. What is this if not war? It’s a war. And it lasted almost 9 years,” added Vladimir Putin
The president accused the Ukrainian authorities of putting neo-Nazis on a podium as heroes.
“We are obliged to fight this. Russia is the country most affected by Nazism. We will never forget this,” added Vladimir Putin
For infrastructure development
In construction, the volume of work has been growing for the fifth year in a row, the president noted.
“We will continue to build and upgrade infrastructure facilities, roads, railways, overpasses, bridges. We will continue to clear the bottlenecks – of course, we still have a long way to go. Increasing the capabilities of seaports will be the focus of our attention, as well as border checkpoints,” assured Vladimir Putin
In particular, by 2030 the state plans to triple the volume of traffic on the “North-South” route.
In addition, the government and Russian railways were able to simplify the delivery of goods and components from Asia through the Far East. Putin did not forget about the Northern Sea Route either: last year over 30 million cargoes passed through it, next year a multiple increase is expected.
“All these are record volumes. And I want to thank our workers, engineers, designers for their productive work. And we will raise the bar even higher. We have everything for it,” added Vladimir Putin.
The President commissioned the updating of road maps in the field of urban planning, tourism and intellectual property.
For the introduction of new technologies
The President also recalled automation, in particular the introduction of artificial intelligence. Here, Russia has its own effective solutions, he emphasized. There are isolated examples, but mass technologies are needed.
The next focus is data-driven. Here, according to Putin, it is important to develop Russian solutions and not to forget about information security.
A new platform is launched – Future Technologies Forum. The first will be held in July and will discuss ideas in computing and data communication.
Among the leaders in the technology sector are Yandex, which the president mentioned twice, Sberbank and Ozon.
About the situation in agriculture
“Supplies from the agro-industrial complex, which I talked about at the beginning, have reached a new peak – it is more than 41 billion dollars. For ten years now, Russia has been among the top five grain exporters. Since 2016, it has been the largest supplier of wheat in the world – number one in world markets,” Vladimir Putin reminded
At the same time, Moscow will actively help African countries experiencing food shortages.
“The growth of agricultural production in the past year was more than ten percent. In all commodity positions in this sector, we actually cover our needs and actively work for export,” added Vladimir Putin.
According to the head of state, there are reasons to believe that this year Russian companies will take another step forward and set a record in the export of this culture.
On the prospects of the tourism industry
The number of tourists also increased by 16.7%, the head of state pointed out. Putin proposed to expand the concessional lending program for hotel projects.
“I propose to expand the concessional lending program for hotel projects, to focus on supporting the most sought-after segment – these are three, four stars, as you know,” Vladimir Putin recalled
International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg takes place from June 14 to 17.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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