In the second circle

Last year's visitors came to German Gref

The latest meeting of Economic Development Minister German Gref with the population in the White House reception revealed an indicative trend: citizens are becoming less and less concerned about global problems and are increasingly interested in their own well-being. In addition, it turned out that the effectiveness of the minister’s meetings with citizens leaves much to be desired.

Just a couple of years ago, a good half of people came with global plans, for example, to quickly double GDP. Or, let’s say, one of those who deserved a reception from the minister proposed a draft system that, according to his assurances, without any financial investments would lead to immediate and complete modernization of the economy. In the same year, the most “global” proposal was the abolition of import customs duties on polypropylene (material for the production of cling film). However, this initiative was related exclusively to the welfare of individual companies.

The general and commercial directors of the Grinn company, which produces the film, in unison convinced the minister that with the current duties they were operating at a loss. The minister confirmed that “in general” he supports the policy of abolishing customs duties, but in general he was not too impressed by the arguments of film producers. Nevertheless, he promised them to bring this issue up for consideration by the commission on protective measures in July, but warned: the abolition of one duty will not get by. “If we remove the duty for you, then the duty on your products will have to be canceled,” he explained to the entrepreneurs. It is known that Mr. Gref actively promotes the idea of ​​abolishing all duties that are purely fiscal in nature. In his opinion, the main purpose of customs duties is to stimulate domestic production, and not to fill the treasury.

All other issues that Mr. Gref dealt with turned out to be of an exclusively private nature. It’s even surprising that the problem of permission to sell sparkling water for individual entrepreneur and father of five children Alexei Desyatov cannot be solved except with the help of the federal minister. However, as it turned out, the minister’s intercession does not change much in the lives of those who managed to reach him. The head of the Stupinsky district of the Moscow region, Pavel Chelpan, comes to a meeting with the minister for the second time in a row with the same question. For years now he has been arguing with Rosimushchestvo about who owns the children’s camp in Anapa. Last year, Mr. Gref called the head of the department directly during the reception with instructions to look into it, but this year Mr. Chelpan came again. The problem, as it turned out, is at exactly the same stage of resolution as it was a year ago.

A similar fate befell Vladimir Gazaryan, who came up last year with the idea of ​​building a children’s art academy in Solnechnogorsk near Moscow. A year ago, the minister also called the Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov. However, as Mr. Ghazaryan, who never had time to see Mr. Gref, said, not a single Ministry of Culture official met with him and no changes happened to him and his project this year.

Vera SITNINA