Translated material
Father's capital
The President “deepened” national projects
The President, at least judging by the lack of public criticism on his part, is satisfied with how, under the leadership of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, priority national projects in education, health care, agriculture and housing policy have been implemented since the beginning of last year. However, eight months before the parliamentary elections and a year before the presidential elections, Vladimir Putin chose not to stop there, but to “speed up and deepen” the process. A voter, and national projects affect almost everyone to varying degrees, must approach the ballot box (and generally come to the polls), being confident in the future, in order to make the “right choice.” Now the president has decided to more strictly define priorities in national policy until 2010, including preparing “father’s capital” for the future head of state.Following the meeting of the Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy , held last Saturday, April 7, the head of state instructed to clarify the activities, implementation mechanisms and amounts of financing of priority national projects in 2008-2010, as well as to prepare additional proposals to improve the demographic situation .
The government to which the instructions are addressed will have to strain itself. He has less than a month left to calculate the costs. The draft federal budget, which should contain new amounts of funding for national projects and, possibly, additional funds to improve the demographic situation, must be submitted to the State Duma by April 30. This is the schedule agreed with the president.
However, it cannot be said that the ministries, in particular the Ministry of Finance, have so far been sitting on their hands. Work on the budget - a three-year budget for the first time in Russia, for 2008-2010 - has been underway for a long time, including on expenditures on national projects. Moreover, on March 22, the Cabinet of Ministers already approved the main budget parameters . At the same time, Mr. Medvedev said that the draft three-year budget generally agreed on spending on priority national projects for 2008-2009. According to him, “there is only, perhaps, one position that needs to be returned to, and it concerns innovative educational programs in 2009, because we have not yet made a final decision on how they will be financed.”
True, a little later at the same cabinet meeting, the First Deputy Prime Minister mentioned another uncoordinated item of expenditure. “This is the initial vocational education of military personnel, and there, according to the application, the parameters will need to be finally settled, meaning the training at the preparatory departments of those who are leaving, the numbers there will need to be finally agreed upon.”
In other words, it is unlikely that spending on national projects will be significantly increased or redistributed. Vladimir Putin’s order is rather a consequence of the discussion at a meeting of the council on national projects, where different points of view were expressed on the mechanisms and volumes of financing of individual components of these projects. Mr. Putin called on members of the government to quickly agree on their positions.
By the way, spending on national projects will reach its largest size in 2008, and then, at least based on the logic of the current parameters of the three-year budget, financing of priority areas will increasingly be carried out within the framework of “sectoral” budget items. For example, it is planned to allocate 35.1 billion rubles for the implementation of the project “Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex” in 2008, 25.4 billion rubles in 2009, and 22.2 billion rubles in 2010. For “Education” in 2008 - 42.8 billion rubles, 2009 - 21.1 billion rubles, 2010 - 1 billion rubles.
And, for example, the amount of funding for the national project “Healthcare” for 2010 is not indicated at all in the Ministry of Finance’s explanatory note to the projections of the main characteristics of the budget and the distribution of expenses according to the departmental structure. It is only said that “the formation of expenditures for relevant purposes in 2010 will be carried out in accordance with decisions on the forms of implementation of the priority national project “Health” beyond 2009.”
Expenditures on improving the demographic situation in the country, on the contrary, will grow from year to year: from 39.5 billion rubles. in 2008 and 43.9 billion rubles. in 2009 to more than 80 billion rubles. in 2010 (taking into account the costs of providing maternity capital). Speaking on demographic policy on Saturday, Vladimir Putin indicated that the new proposals he instructs to develop should include “providing timely and high-quality medical care for road traffic accidents, vascular diseases, industrial injuries and occupational diseases.” The government also needs to pay attention to “determining the volume of guaranteed medical care provided to women free of charge during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, as well as developing measures to develop a network of modern perinatal centers.”
In addition, the president considers it necessary to implement measures to increase the employment of women who have young children (including the introduction of flexible work schedules), organize their vocational training and retraining, and determine mechanisms for indexing benefits for families with children. Another important proposal is to take measures to develop the system of preschool care and education, including compensation of parental fees for the education of children in non-state educational institutions.
The president also did not forget about improving the living conditions of families with children. According to him, provision should be made for “increasing the degree of housing affordability for families with young children, including the introduction of mortgages with deferred (reduced) payments, provision of the bulk of state subsidies for the birth of a child, expansion of the volume of housing construction and social infrastructure, taking into account the needs of large families families."
In a word, the president calls for increased care for women so that they feel more protected and, accordingly, are not afraid to give birth to their first, second, or third child. Moreover, care is not only material, but also spiritual and physical. Mr. Putin ordered to strengthen the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and family values, including ensuring the expansion of broadcasting of the Culture and Sports TV channels, as well as accelerating the creation of a federal children's channel.
In general, the opportunities for Russian officials to earn political (and financial) capital through social policy are rich.