Meeting with Government members
Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Government members to examine the Government’s work on implementing measures to ensure Russia’s stable socioeconomic development in 2016.
July 14, 2016
14:30
The Kremlin, Moscow
Meeting with Government members.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon colleagues.
We are here to discuss the Government’s plans for this year, but I would like to start with several current matters.
As you may know, some of the laws and decisions recently passed by the State Duma, in particular the amendments to counterterrorism laws, have been the subject of much discussion. I would like to ask Mr Nikiforov [Minister of Communications and Mass Media] to comment on these decisions, including the instructions I gave the Government following consultations with you and with market players. You have the floor.
Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov: Mr President,
True, some of the Government’s proposals were taken into account during the law’s passage through parliament. Some issues concerning the implementation of the amendments are still open. If further amendments to the law are needed, they will be drafted, examined by the Government, and submitted to the State Duma during the autumn session. However, we do not share the various emotional assessments of those who have not fully understood the whole issue. I say this because, first of all, the most controversial new provision, on storing users’ data, does not come into force until 2018, and we therefore do not see any risk of growing costs now, in 2016.
Second, on your instructions, the Government immediately received the relevant instructions. The agencies concerned are now studying all of the details involved in implementing this law and will set out procedures for who has to store what, and how much time we will need to implement these antiterrorist measures. This will determine the requirements in terms of equipment and the obligations for telecommunications providers, and only then will we really be able to make an evaluation.
Pursuant to the instructions, data will be stored using Russian equipment and Russian software. Our colleagues from the Industry and Trade Ministry also support these proposals. We are working together with the telecommunications industry to draft the relevant terms of reference and will study these proposals together. As I have said, if further clarifications are needed in terms of implementing specific provisions, we will draft appropriate amendments and submit them for the autumn session. Let me add that Russia can be proud today of having some of the lowest telecommunications rates in the world thanks to high competition in this sector, and we will maintain and support the leadership we have here.
Vladimir Putin: Good. How do you plan to implement the instructions I mentioned?
Nikolai Nikiforov: The instructions concern specific details and matters concerned with the law’s application. In other words, the law is one thing and the rest is a matter of bylaws.
Vladimir Putin: But in practical terms, how will you carry out the instructions?
Nikolai Nikiforov: First of all, we are working on the specific volume of data that has to be stored, what has to be collected and stored and how this will be done. The second issue is what equipment will be used to store it. We are going to rely on Russia’s own industry here and will work out the optimal solution.
Vladimir Putin: Does our industry produce the necessary equipment?
Nikolai Nikiforov: Not yet in most cases, but together with our colleagues from the Industry and Trade Ministry, we are drawing up the terms of reference now to match as closely as possible the industry’s needs following this law’s adoption, and the companies’ capabilities. We are in full contact with our colleagues here.
Vladimir Putin: This needs to be done quickly. Companies need to be able to get to work on what is a good and guaranteed state contract.
Nikolai Nikiforov: This will be done.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Over the past years, we have been actively developing the professional qualifications system. A new law and amendments to the Labour Code were recently adopted with the passage of the federal law regulating the new qualifications evaluation system. I would like to ask Mr Topilin to say a few words about this matter.
You have the floor.
Minister of Labour and Social Protection Maxim Topilin: Mr President, colleagues,
One of the key tasks we have been working on over these past years is to give people greater access to information on the labour market situation, on developing professions and employers’ demands regarding these professions. We are doing this to send the right signals to the education system and to the people when it comes to choosing a career, developing individual careers, and becoming more competitive on the labour market.
Our work involves several aspects. First, we are continuing our work on drawing up professional standards. We have more than 800 professional standards ready to date. We will continue this. We have reached agreements with employers’ associations and plan to draft around 200 more professional standards this year.
The most important task now with regard to the law that was passed is to implement the professional standards and make sure they are used. The law came into force as of July 1 and the Government has issued the relevant resolution. All public sector organisations, state corporations, and state-owned companies will have a transition period through to 2020. The main task will be to ensure that people can get retrained in order to develop their skills and knowledge.
The second aspect is the work on a reference book of professions. We have put quite a lot of time into this. We put together this reference book jointly with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and with employers’ associations in different sectors. The task now is to make it accessible to all and ensure it is regularly updated, so that people can really use it as a reference tool. We have already drawn up a draft law that the Government will examine soon, and we hope it will be passed in autumn.
The third aspect is the new qualification evaluation system. The law was signed on July 3rd. What issues and tasks do we face in this respect? The law will require the Government to approve a large number of government regulations before the end of the year. People currently encounter the problem that as they move from one company to another they are required to prove their knowledge and skills: employers do not have enough trust in what is written in people’s record of professional employment alone.
The other problem is that people often have skills and experience simply by virtue of having worked somewhere, but do not have documents confirming education in that area, documents issued by the education system. The new law resolves this problem because under its terms, employers, working through their sector-based associations, will establish councils (this is already happening now) and set up qualification evaluation centres. Employers will be able to send their employees there, retaining their social protection guarantees and wages, and the employers will be able to include these expenses in the cost price. We have amended the Labour Code accordingly to ensure that this system is of interest to all sides. Employees will benefit from it in that they will be able to obtain all the confirmations of their skills they need, should they take this decision, and they will have broad possibilities for using this independent organisation.
As I said, we still need to adopt a large number of regulations, together with the employers and trade unions. We hope to have this system operating from January 1, though parts of it are already working now in trial mode. We think this system will give a new boost to raising qualifications, developing new skills and meeting new demand on the labour market.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: It is very important to establish a qualifications system and approve standards, but we also need to use this qualifications system to train people, young people. This is why we decided to establish a network of training centres for the working professions most in demand. The first seven centres will open in Tyumen, Moscow, Ulyanovsk and Sverdlovsk regions, and the republics of Tatar Stan and Chuvashia. We have agreed to allocate substantial funding – 900 million rubles – from the federal budget for this purpose. The regions will add another billion, and the business community will invest 300 million into the project.
I now ask Mr Livanov to tell us more about this project.
Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov: Mr President, we started setting up this network early this year. It is very important primarily as a platform for training our national team in professional skills as part of the Young Professionals movement.
Each interregional skills centre will have specialised training centres and practice facilities. They will have modern equipment with the latest education technology from Russia and abroad. This is the equipment used at the international WorldSkills competitions and is essential for ensuring we meet international standards in all working professions with good prospects, without exception.
As you said, there are seven centres working in professional fields such as machine-building and materials processing (Sverdlovsk Region), automation, radio technology and electronics (Chuvashia), information technology (Tatarstan), service, transport and logistics (Ulyanovsk Region), construction (Moscow Region), the service sector (Tyumen Region), and engineering and industrial technologies (Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk Territory).
Apart from ensuring our team’s rapid and effective training, these centres will also function as support points for spreading the latest practice and will become effectively operating internship centres for the entire vocational education system, thus helping to spread these standards throughout the system.
Let me add that at the Smena children’s centre in Krasnodar Territory, we are setting up a national professional skills training centre to train people in special skills such as personal efficiency, time management, foreign language or teamwork skills, creative abilities, psychological and physical training and so on. This is also where the expanded national team will hold its training sessions and where the team selection will be made. This is also a very important part of getting our team ready for international competitions, including the world championship that will take place in Kazan in 2019.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: This is good.
An excellent big project is underway now: work began on building Russia’s collider in Dubna in July. It will be ready for operation in 2020, is that right?
Dmitry Livanov: That is right.
Vladimir Putin: As far as I know, 26 countries are taking part in this work.
Dmitry Livanov: First of all, I would like to say that it was back in 2011 that you chaired a meeting of the Government Commission on Innovation and High Technology that examined the several dozen Russian projects for establishing mega-level scientific facilities here, that is to say, large-scale scientific research platforms. This project, known as NICA, was one of the projects selected. It is a heavy ions collider. This is important for science because this facility will make it possible to study quark-gluon plasma. This is a state of the high-density substances that were produced, for example, during the first moments of the universe’s development following the Big Bang, and is what you find in neutron stars. None of the existing colliders in the world – and there are quite a few – nor those currently in the project stage will have the physical parameters that this facility will offer. This will give Russia a unique advantage. It will offer a platform not only for our scientists but also for scientists from around the world. We already have more than 1,000 scientists from 36 countries taking part in international cooperation. This cooperation is certainly set to expand. All of the experts say that they expect this facility to produce research results of the kind that win the Nobel Prize.
We think it is extremely important to develop this project now. It has all the necessary financing and construction work is going full steam ahead. The first stage will be completed in 2018, and the facility will be ready for operation by 2020.
Vladimir Putin: Do you remember how many institutes are taking part?
Dmitry Livanov: 36 countries in total.
Vladimir Putin: No, how many Russian institutes are taking part?
Dmitry Livanov: We have around 90 taking part. Our organisations are certainly involved in the design and production of the equipment, which is most important and valuable for the facility’s work.
Vladimir Putin: What is the financing involved?
Dmitry Livanov: The financing comes to around 17 billion rubles overall. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research will cover roughly half of this through the contributions it receives from different countries, including Russia, and roughly half will come from the federal budget. The relevant financial decisions have already been made for the next three years and Russia has earmarked the funding of its share. In other words, construction is fully funded through to 2018.
Vladimir Putin: Dubna offers a good base for this work.
Dmitry Livanov: Yes, it offers an excellent intellectual environment. World-renowned scientists work there, and they also have a very good engineering team, because this is not just a construction task, after all, but is above all an engineering and scientific task. We are certain of this project’s success.
Vladimir Putin: Wish them success. I would like you to give this project the administrative backing and support it needs. Thank you.
The summer vacation season is at its height now. Mr Safonov, how are things going? What problems and issues have people encountered this year?
Please, go ahead.
Head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov: Mr President, colleagues,
The preliminary results of the first summer months of this year’s tourist season show positive dynamics for domestic tourism products and a high level of occupancy rates at Russia’s resorts.
This year, we have expanded sales of package tours. Previously, package tours usually involved flights out of Moscow and St Petersburg, but this year, the choice has expanded considerably and now includes tour packages with flights from Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Kazan, Ufa, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities.
Selling package tours has made it possible to bring the cost of domestic tourism products down by 20–30 percent, which is an important result. These package tours are very popular with Russian tourists. People used to buy package tours mostly when travelling abroad, but now this practice has become widely used here at home as well.
This year, together with Russian Railways, we have developed and implemented the practice of using charter trains and charter carriages for destinations in the south, and this has also made it possible to bring tourism product costs down for the general public. Minimum costs are now around 15,000 rubles a week. These new products have also become very popular.
I would like to say that domestic package tours are the most popular products now and account for 22 percent of sales. This is the first time we have had such a result; previously, tours in Russia accounted for a much smaller share.
Let me also say that we think that opening Turkey as a tourist destination will gave a big additional incentive to Russian resorts to raise the quality of the services they offer to Russian tourists. Prices immediately fell, both here at our resorts, and at foreign resorts. I think this is something important and positive.
The Russian regions are active now in offering our tourists a wide variety of holiday options. Crimea is a very popular holiday destination: more than 1.5 million people have already holidayed there, up more than 20 percent. Krasnodar Territory is also popular, with the figures up 7 percent at more than 4.6 million people holidaying there now. Various kinds of alternative holiday options are also very popular this year, in particular in the North Caucasus Mineralniye Vody area, which offers a wide range of health resort options. We have seen a growth of slightly more than 5 percent here this year. There is also Altai Territory, which offers a variety of activities focused on health, excursions, and environmental tourism. The figures are up 10 percent this year with more than 700,000 people having already come there. The tourist centres of Moscow and St Petersburg are very popular, with a growth of around 6 percent. The Far East is extremely in demand this year and the vacation sector is completely sold out there, with Kamchatka at 100-percent capacity.
We expect this positive trend in domestic tourism growth to continue and predict an increase in tourism figures of around 15 percent. Our most important job now is to continue modernising and building the tourism infrastructure, increasing the number of hotels, and raising the quality of service. These measures are all being carried out as part of the federal targeted programme to develop domestic and foreign tourism.
We believe that raising the quality of services, introducing new tourism products, and actively promoting our tourism products at home and abroad will help to bolster Russia’s position on the global tourism market.
Vladimir Putin: Is the number of foreign tourists increasing?
Oleg Safonov: Mr President, the number of foreign tourists increased by 5 percent last year. This year, the statistics show that we still have work to do because there has been a slight drop in the number of foreign tourists.
Vladimir Putin: Why is this, in your opinion?
Oleg Safonov: We have seen an increase in the number of tourists from some countries, and a drop in the number from others. We probably need to make some further effort to encourage more foreign tourists to visit Russia. We have seen an increase of 50 percent in the number of tourists from China, for example, which has been promoted by the introduction of visa-free travel for tourist groups.
Vladimir Putin: Good, thank you.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/putin-russian-government-working-secure-prosperous-end-2016
Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Government members to examine the Government’s work on implementing measures to ensure Russia’s stable socioeconomic development in 2016.
July 14, 2016
14:30
The Kremlin, Moscow
Meeting with Government members.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon colleagues.
We are here to discuss the Government’s plans for this year, but I would like to start with several current matters.
As you may know, some of the laws and decisions recently passed by the State Duma, in particular the amendments to counterterrorism laws, have been the subject of much discussion. I would like to ask Mr Nikiforov [Minister of Communications and Mass Media] to comment on these decisions, including the instructions I gave the Government following consultations with you and with market players. You have the floor.
Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov: Mr President,
True, some of the Government’s proposals were taken into account during the law’s passage through parliament. Some issues concerning the implementation of the amendments are still open. If further amendments to the law are needed, they will be drafted, examined by the Government, and submitted to the State Duma during the autumn session. However, we do not share the various emotional assessments of those who have not fully understood the whole issue. I say this because, first of all, the most controversial new provision, on storing users’ data, does not come into force until 2018, and we therefore do not see any risk of growing costs now, in 2016.
Second, on your instructions, the Government immediately received the relevant instructions. The agencies concerned are now studying all of the details involved in implementing this law and will set out procedures for who has to store what, and how much time we will need to implement these antiterrorist measures. This will determine the requirements in terms of equipment and the obligations for telecommunications providers, and only then will we really be able to make an evaluation.
Pursuant to the instructions, data will be stored using Russian equipment and Russian software. Our colleagues from the Industry and Trade Ministry also support these proposals. We are working together with the telecommunications industry to draft the relevant terms of reference and will study these proposals together. As I have said, if further clarifications are needed in terms of implementing specific provisions, we will draft appropriate amendments and submit them for the autumn session. Let me add that Russia can be proud today of having some of the lowest telecommunications rates in the world thanks to high competition in this sector, and we will maintain and support the leadership we have here.
Vladimir Putin: Good. How do you plan to implement the instructions I mentioned?
Nikolai Nikiforov: The instructions concern specific details and matters concerned with the law’s application. In other words, the law is one thing and the rest is a matter of bylaws.
Vladimir Putin: But in practical terms, how will you carry out the instructions?
Nikolai Nikiforov: First of all, we are working on the specific volume of data that has to be stored, what has to be collected and stored and how this will be done. The second issue is what equipment will be used to store it. We are going to rely on Russia’s own industry here and will work out the optimal solution.
Vladimir Putin: Does our industry produce the necessary equipment?
Nikolai Nikiforov: Not yet in most cases, but together with our colleagues from the Industry and Trade Ministry, we are drawing up the terms of reference now to match as closely as possible the industry’s needs following this law’s adoption, and the companies’ capabilities. We are in full contact with our colleagues here.
Vladimir Putin: This needs to be done quickly. Companies need to be able to get to work on what is a good and guaranteed state contract.
Nikolai Nikiforov: This will be done.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Over the past years, we have been actively developing the professional qualifications system. A new law and amendments to the Labour Code were recently adopted with the passage of the federal law regulating the new qualifications evaluation system. I would like to ask Mr Topilin to say a few words about this matter.
You have the floor.
Minister of Labour and Social Protection Maxim Topilin: Mr President, colleagues,
One of the key tasks we have been working on over these past years is to give people greater access to information on the labour market situation, on developing professions and employers’ demands regarding these professions. We are doing this to send the right signals to the education system and to the people when it comes to choosing a career, developing individual careers, and becoming more competitive on the labour market.
Our work involves several aspects. First, we are continuing our work on drawing up professional standards. We have more than 800 professional standards ready to date. We will continue this. We have reached agreements with employers’ associations and plan to draft around 200 more professional standards this year.
The most important task now with regard to the law that was passed is to implement the professional standards and make sure they are used. The law came into force as of July 1 and the Government has issued the relevant resolution. All public sector organisations, state corporations, and state-owned companies will have a transition period through to 2020. The main task will be to ensure that people can get retrained in order to develop their skills and knowledge.
The second aspect is the work on a reference book of professions. We have put quite a lot of time into this. We put together this reference book jointly with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and with employers’ associations in different sectors. The task now is to make it accessible to all and ensure it is regularly updated, so that people can really use it as a reference tool. We have already drawn up a draft law that the Government will examine soon, and we hope it will be passed in autumn.
The third aspect is the new qualification evaluation system. The law was signed on July 3rd. What issues and tasks do we face in this respect? The law will require the Government to approve a large number of government regulations before the end of the year. People currently encounter the problem that as they move from one company to another they are required to prove their knowledge and skills: employers do not have enough trust in what is written in people’s record of professional employment alone.
The other problem is that people often have skills and experience simply by virtue of having worked somewhere, but do not have documents confirming education in that area, documents issued by the education system. The new law resolves this problem because under its terms, employers, working through their sector-based associations, will establish councils (this is already happening now) and set up qualification evaluation centres. Employers will be able to send their employees there, retaining their social protection guarantees and wages, and the employers will be able to include these expenses in the cost price. We have amended the Labour Code accordingly to ensure that this system is of interest to all sides. Employees will benefit from it in that they will be able to obtain all the confirmations of their skills they need, should they take this decision, and they will have broad possibilities for using this independent organisation.
As I said, we still need to adopt a large number of regulations, together with the employers and trade unions. We hope to have this system operating from January 1, though parts of it are already working now in trial mode. We think this system will give a new boost to raising qualifications, developing new skills and meeting new demand on the labour market.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: It is very important to establish a qualifications system and approve standards, but we also need to use this qualifications system to train people, young people. This is why we decided to establish a network of training centres for the working professions most in demand. The first seven centres will open in Tyumen, Moscow, Ulyanovsk and Sverdlovsk regions, and the republics of Tatar Stan and Chuvashia. We have agreed to allocate substantial funding – 900 million rubles – from the federal budget for this purpose. The regions will add another billion, and the business community will invest 300 million into the project.
I now ask Mr Livanov to tell us more about this project.
Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov: Mr President, we started setting up this network early this year. It is very important primarily as a platform for training our national team in professional skills as part of the Young Professionals movement.
Each interregional skills centre will have specialised training centres and practice facilities. They will have modern equipment with the latest education technology from Russia and abroad. This is the equipment used at the international WorldSkills competitions and is essential for ensuring we meet international standards in all working professions with good prospects, without exception.
As you said, there are seven centres working in professional fields such as machine-building and materials processing (Sverdlovsk Region), automation, radio technology and electronics (Chuvashia), information technology (Tatarstan), service, transport and logistics (Ulyanovsk Region), construction (Moscow Region), the service sector (Tyumen Region), and engineering and industrial technologies (Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk Territory).
Apart from ensuring our team’s rapid and effective training, these centres will also function as support points for spreading the latest practice and will become effectively operating internship centres for the entire vocational education system, thus helping to spread these standards throughout the system.
Let me add that at the Smena children’s centre in Krasnodar Territory, we are setting up a national professional skills training centre to train people in special skills such as personal efficiency, time management, foreign language or teamwork skills, creative abilities, psychological and physical training and so on. This is also where the expanded national team will hold its training sessions and where the team selection will be made. This is also a very important part of getting our team ready for international competitions, including the world championship that will take place in Kazan in 2019.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: This is good.
An excellent big project is underway now: work began on building Russia’s collider in Dubna in July. It will be ready for operation in 2020, is that right?
Dmitry Livanov: That is right.
Vladimir Putin: As far as I know, 26 countries are taking part in this work.
Dmitry Livanov: First of all, I would like to say that it was back in 2011 that you chaired a meeting of the Government Commission on Innovation and High Technology that examined the several dozen Russian projects for establishing mega-level scientific facilities here, that is to say, large-scale scientific research platforms. This project, known as NICA, was one of the projects selected. It is a heavy ions collider. This is important for science because this facility will make it possible to study quark-gluon plasma. This is a state of the high-density substances that were produced, for example, during the first moments of the universe’s development following the Big Bang, and is what you find in neutron stars. None of the existing colliders in the world – and there are quite a few – nor those currently in the project stage will have the physical parameters that this facility will offer. This will give Russia a unique advantage. It will offer a platform not only for our scientists but also for scientists from around the world. We already have more than 1,000 scientists from 36 countries taking part in international cooperation. This cooperation is certainly set to expand. All of the experts say that they expect this facility to produce research results of the kind that win the Nobel Prize.
We think it is extremely important to develop this project now. It has all the necessary financing and construction work is going full steam ahead. The first stage will be completed in 2018, and the facility will be ready for operation by 2020.
Vladimir Putin: Do you remember how many institutes are taking part?
Dmitry Livanov: 36 countries in total.
Vladimir Putin: No, how many Russian institutes are taking part?
Dmitry Livanov: We have around 90 taking part. Our organisations are certainly involved in the design and production of the equipment, which is most important and valuable for the facility’s work.
Vladimir Putin: What is the financing involved?
Dmitry Livanov: The financing comes to around 17 billion rubles overall. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research will cover roughly half of this through the contributions it receives from different countries, including Russia, and roughly half will come from the federal budget. The relevant financial decisions have already been made for the next three years and Russia has earmarked the funding of its share. In other words, construction is fully funded through to 2018.
Vladimir Putin: Dubna offers a good base for this work.
Dmitry Livanov: Yes, it offers an excellent intellectual environment. World-renowned scientists work there, and they also have a very good engineering team, because this is not just a construction task, after all, but is above all an engineering and scientific task. We are certain of this project’s success.
Vladimir Putin: Wish them success. I would like you to give this project the administrative backing and support it needs. Thank you.
The summer vacation season is at its height now. Mr Safonov, how are things going? What problems and issues have people encountered this year?
Please, go ahead.
Head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov: Mr President, colleagues,
The preliminary results of the first summer months of this year’s tourist season show positive dynamics for domestic tourism products and a high level of occupancy rates at Russia’s resorts.
This year, we have expanded sales of package tours. Previously, package tours usually involved flights out of Moscow and St Petersburg, but this year, the choice has expanded considerably and now includes tour packages with flights from Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Kazan, Ufa, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities.
Selling package tours has made it possible to bring the cost of domestic tourism products down by 20–30 percent, which is an important result. These package tours are very popular with Russian tourists. People used to buy package tours mostly when travelling abroad, but now this practice has become widely used here at home as well.
This year, together with Russian Railways, we have developed and implemented the practice of using charter trains and charter carriages for destinations in the south, and this has also made it possible to bring tourism product costs down for the general public. Minimum costs are now around 15,000 rubles a week. These new products have also become very popular.
I would like to say that domestic package tours are the most popular products now and account for 22 percent of sales. This is the first time we have had such a result; previously, tours in Russia accounted for a much smaller share.
Let me also say that we think that opening Turkey as a tourist destination will gave a big additional incentive to Russian resorts to raise the quality of the services they offer to Russian tourists. Prices immediately fell, both here at our resorts, and at foreign resorts. I think this is something important and positive.
The Russian regions are active now in offering our tourists a wide variety of holiday options. Crimea is a very popular holiday destination: more than 1.5 million people have already holidayed there, up more than 20 percent. Krasnodar Territory is also popular, with the figures up 7 percent at more than 4.6 million people holidaying there now. Various kinds of alternative holiday options are also very popular this year, in particular in the North Caucasus Mineralniye Vody area, which offers a wide range of health resort options. We have seen a growth of slightly more than 5 percent here this year. There is also Altai Territory, which offers a variety of activities focused on health, excursions, and environmental tourism. The figures are up 10 percent this year with more than 700,000 people having already come there. The tourist centres of Moscow and St Petersburg are very popular, with a growth of around 6 percent. The Far East is extremely in demand this year and the vacation sector is completely sold out there, with Kamchatka at 100-percent capacity.
We expect this positive trend in domestic tourism growth to continue and predict an increase in tourism figures of around 15 percent. Our most important job now is to continue modernising and building the tourism infrastructure, increasing the number of hotels, and raising the quality of service. These measures are all being carried out as part of the federal targeted programme to develop domestic and foreign tourism.
We believe that raising the quality of services, introducing new tourism products, and actively promoting our tourism products at home and abroad will help to bolster Russia’s position on the global tourism market.
Vladimir Putin: Is the number of foreign tourists increasing?
Oleg Safonov: Mr President, the number of foreign tourists increased by 5 percent last year. This year, the statistics show that we still have work to do because there has been a slight drop in the number of foreign tourists.
Vladimir Putin: Why is this, in your opinion?
Oleg Safonov: We have seen an increase in the number of tourists from some countries, and a drop in the number from others. We probably need to make some further effort to encourage more foreign tourists to visit Russia. We have seen an increase of 50 percent in the number of tourists from China, for example, which has been promoted by the introduction of visa-free travel for tourist groups.
Vladimir Putin: Good, thank you.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/putin-russian-government-working-secure-prosperous-end-2016
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Yesterday at 7:21 am by Rocky
» The Foreign Minister questions the "Iraqi resistance" attacks against Israel: the other side did not
Yesterday at 7:20 am by Rocky
» The Minister of Labor announces progress in the electronic payment system
Yesterday at 7:17 am by Rocky
» Interior Ministry: For the first time, we controlled the smuggling of petroleum derivatives by 98 pe
Yesterday at 7:16 am by Rocky
» International companies offer offers to invest in the Dhi Qar marshes.. What distinguishes them?
Yesterday at 7:15 am by Rocky
» “Tough” comments on interest rates raise the dollar globally
Yesterday at 7:14 am by Rocky
» Iraq is the fifth largest oil supplier to South Korea in a month
Yesterday at 7:12 am by Rocky
» Recovering more than 100 billion as a result of more than 200,000 employees on social welfare
Yesterday at 7:11 am by Rocky
» The Sudanese consultant announces the completion of Baghdad Metro track designs
Yesterday at 7:08 am by Rocky
» Al-Sudani stresses ending the problem of triple-shift schools
Yesterday at 7:07 am by Rocky
» Iraq begins building two new tankers to transport petroleum products
Yesterday at 7:06 am by Rocky
» Forming a council for “competition and preventing monopoly”
Yesterday at 7:04 am by Rocky
» Features of an Iraqi-Turkish agreement regarding the status of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
Yesterday at 7:02 am by Rocky
» {Al-Buzrajiya} between the hammer of fraud and the power of the owners
Yesterday at 7:01 am by Rocky
» Ministry of Oil: The gas sector is witnessing great development
Yesterday at 6:59 am by Rocky
» An agreement with Britain in the field of securities
Yesterday at 6:58 am by Rocky
» Discussions between Baghdad and Ankara to open a new port
Yesterday at 6:57 am by Rocky
» Trade: About 11 million citizens updated their new card information
Yesterday at 6:56 am by Rocky
» Electronic payment is sustainable growth
Yesterday at 6:55 am by Rocky
» Experts: Iraq qualifies to be an important tourist country
Yesterday at 6:54 am by Rocky
» Amending the Health Professions Law “robs” scientists of the central appointment 3 years after it wa
Yesterday at 5:20 am by Rocky
» Is the “blessings package” that Erbil paid to the citizens of Kurdistan related to the elections?
Yesterday at 5:19 am by Rocky
» Exceeded 5,000 projects.. Allocating 10 trillion dinars to support governorate reconstruction plans
Yesterday at 5:18 am by Rocky
» “His need no longer exists.” Parliamentary Finance confirms the necessity of returning the retiremen
Yesterday at 5:17 am by Rocky
» To communicate with the bases... 12 directives from Al-Sadr, including blocking numbers for non-gove
Yesterday at 5:15 am by Rocky
» In an interview with "Baghdad Today"... an Iranian researcher reveals the importance of Haniyeh's vi
Yesterday at 5:14 am by Rocky
» After it was 63 trillion in 2023... the 2024 budget deficit will rise to 80 trillion dinars
Yesterday at 5:13 am by Rocky
» Parliament reveals the date of the first evaluation of the governors and determines the party respon
Yesterday at 5:11 am by Rocky
» The President of the Republic informs Al-Araji and Al-Basri: Momentum must be mobilized to eliminate
Yesterday at 5:10 am by Rocky
» Can the Federal Court sue others? A legal clarification of its response mechanism to abuse
Yesterday at 5:09 am by Rocky
» Despite promises to soon stop burning gas.. What is the secret behind Iraq renewing the Iranian gas
Yesterday at 5:07 am by Rocky
» Advisor to Al-Sudani: The dollar is on the way to further decline, and 70% of Iraqi traders have ent
Yesterday at 5:06 am by Rocky
» Iraq exported more than 99 million barrels of oil last February
Yesterday at 5:04 am by Rocky
» Barzani “gives good news” to Kurdistan employees: salaries, land, and loan exemptions
Yesterday at 5:03 am by Rocky
» Alia Nassif: Nour Zuhair returned to the port of Umm Qasr to make deals.. An influential Shiite forc
Yesterday at 5:02 am by Rocky
» The Prime Minister announces the movement of nearly 500 stalled projects
Yesterday at 5:00 am by Rocky
» A government strategy to enhance investments.. Iraq is on the verge of a new era of economic develop
Yesterday at 4:59 am by Rocky
» Ranging between 20% and 50%.. The Kurdistan government decides to reduce service fees, customs dutie
Yesterday at 4:58 am by Rocky
» Al-Sudani: The reform approach in the security services is an integral part of reform in other secto
Yesterday at 4:56 am by Rocky
» Everyone in Iraq wants the Sudanese visit to Washington to be successful, even the factions!
Yesterday at 4:55 am by Rocky
» Sources and experts expect the agenda.. in his bag is the Baghdad dollar and the factions’ truce, bu
Yesterday at 4:54 am by Rocky
» The decision to raise gasoline prices arouses the ire of drivers...a reminder of the large demonstra
Yesterday at 4:53 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary services: 3 important hospitals in Baghdad will enter service at the end of the year
Yesterday at 4:52 am by Rocky
» Iraq signs a contract to supply Iranian gas for a period of five years
Yesterday at 4:50 am by Rocky
» Parliament adds a voting paragraph on amending the Penal Code to its agenda
Yesterday at 4:49 am by Rocky
» His political advisor: We are not afraid of Sudanese entering the elections alone
Yesterday at 4:48 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary services explain the reasons for the rise in real estate prices in Baghdad
Yesterday at 4:46 am by Rocky
» Attia, criticizing the government's decisions: "The citizen's feathers will be ruffled without servi
Yesterday at 4:45 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary Communications: Zain Iraq and Asiacell did not pay their debts
Yesterday at 4:44 am by Rocky
» The Governor of Karbala announces the imminent establishment of the largest industrial city in the c
Yesterday at 4:43 am by Rocky
» A government determination to end the issue of displaced persons in the middle of this year
Yesterday at 4:42 am by Rocky
» Iraq buys gas from Kurdistan to generate electricity
Yesterday at 4:41 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary signatures to include an amendment to the internal regulations to decide the choice of
Yesterday at 4:40 am by Rocky
» In Basra.. a demonstration against foreign workers in Iraqi companies (video)
Yesterday at 4:38 am by Rocky
» Al-Samarrai: Presidency of Parliament is an entitlement to the constituents, and calling it a “frame
Yesterday at 4:36 am by Rocky
» Electronic food supplies in 6 governorates... covering 11 million Iraqis and “writing off” about 700
Yesterday at 4:34 am by Rocky
» Corruption of the Ministry of Transport.. Representatives express their surprise at the minister’s s
Yesterday at 4:32 am by Rocky
» The biggest supporter of the invasion of Iraq.. The death of former US Senator Joe Lieberman
Yesterday at 4:31 am by Rocky
» Iraq is ranked “late.” A list of the most and least safe Arab countries for women
Yesterday at 4:30 am by Rocky
» The Council of Ministers exempts the Gulf Interconnection Authority from guarantee fees: it is a gov
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:48 am by Rocky
» The Iraqi government raises the size of the 2024 budget, and Parliament is “surprised”
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:46 am by Rocky
» Popular Movement: We have many economic options away from American hegemony
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:42 am by Rocky
» The Oil Parliament stresses the need to transfer part of the revenues to the producing governorates
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:41 am by Rocky
» It will cover 14 regions in eastern Iraq.. A deputy reveals the “border electricity” project
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:40 am by Rocky
» Experts Warn Mass Migration Threatens US Food Security
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:37 am by Bama Diva
» Al-Fateh: America occupies Iraq through agreements
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:37 am by Rocky
» Anger in Iraq over a "sudden decision"... and a reminder of a "general strike" that paralyzed the co
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:34 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary Committee: Parliament is discussing today a decision that “disturbed” the Iraqis
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:33 am by Rocky
» Ministry of Electricity: Our production will reach 27 thousand megawatts by May
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:31 am by Rocky
» Diagnosing the “most important” problems in the oil file between Baghdad and Erbil.. What is the rel
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:30 am by Rocky
» The Iraqi Fiqh Academy and the Sunni Endowment issue a fatwa to pay Zakat al-Fitr
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:28 am by Rocky
» The National Bank of Iraq continues its digital transformation by launching its new banking system a
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:26 am by Rocky
» Parliamentary Investment and the Central Bank are discussing the housing initiative
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:25 am by Rocky
» The Prime Minister announces the restart of 500 suspended projects
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:23 am by Rocky
» Al-Barti assesses the region's employees: Your salaries are insured and will be paid after resettlem
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:21 am by Rocky
» Iraqi-American discussions in anticipation of the Sudanese visit
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:20 am by Rocky
» Iraq and Turkey hold meetings in Ankara to discuss technical issues related to the development road
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:17 am by Rocky
» A government parliamentary agreement to support budget revenues and governorate allocations for inve
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:16 am by Rocky
» Oil: The gas sector is witnessing great development
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:15 am by Rocky
» A Kurdish-French agreement to develop trade and economic relations
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:13 am by Rocky
» Exchange companies in Mosul demand that they be entered into the currency selling window
Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7:12 am by Rocky