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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
Brief outline of the speech of Boris Maltsev
at the XLII Duma Session The second half of this year is marked with new challenges emerged in the world economy: economic growth of the leading industrial countries slowed down again. Challenges in economy triggered the problems in social life of France, Greece, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Belgium, the UK and Spain.
The visit of the President Medvedev to China appeared to be a large success in foreign policy and economy. During his visit a package of documents was signed. They form the Russian and Chinese power alliance worldwide called as unexampled. The main achievements include signing of a contract for oil supply via Skovorodino – Daqing pipeline started up by the heads of both states; agreements on the advanced terms and conditions of the Russian gas deliveries, as well as construction of two power blocks of the nuclear power plant.
This summer was hard for Russia. Abnormally dry weather turned into disaster for quite a few Russian regions. The country was overwhelmed by the fire wave claiming dozens of lives, sweeping off houses and property, burning the grain crops over 10m hectare area. The nature delivered a fatal blow to the environment and technological infrastructure of many large cities. Unfortunately, local fires still remain in some regions to the present time.
The crisis matters are still relevant in the world media. Also in our country and in Tomsk Oblast politicians and political analysts, business people and citizens like to reason upon crisis. Some say that crisis is over; the others insist that it is going on; the rest conclude that we are on track. I think any citizen can estimate for themselves the status of economy in the Oblast not knowing the statistics. Visit a furniture store and the truth will break upon you. Large area of show rooms, lots of furniture for one's money, and no buyers. The situation is not simple, and without certain measures taken by the fall, we can possibly face the second wave of the crisis, which is announced by political analysts and economists.
Although the real estate market is revived, the rate of sales is still far behind from the sales of 2007-2008. The taken measures to attract the citizens to construct and purchase the housing and other real estate are insufficient and academic, without any know-how in this respect. Civil construction, furniture and appliance stores can be rescued by the citizens only. The economy can only be led out of the trouble by the citizens with their purchases. This shall be supported by money - salaries, pension benefits, affordable loans. Something is being done in this regard. Pension benefits have grown almost twice in comparison with 2008, the Oblast average salary has increased by 26.6%; salaries in over 500 companies are above the average in the Oblast.
The hot topic within the regional policy for today is the 10/10 elections. They will be held in all 16 municipal districts, plus in four cities – Tomsk, Seversk, Strezhevoy and Kedroviy. We are going to elect 16 dumas of municipal districts and four dumas of the city constituencies and a village council. These were representative bodies. Besides, we will elect 9 heads of municipal districts and 9 heads of rural settlements. The total is 356 deputies and 18 heads.
On the one hand, such scale shows that Russia is governed by democratic principles. Though on the other hand, we, as electors, must understand that the power renovation should by no means negatively affect the political stability in our Oblast. In fact it’s just the stability that enabled us to move forward in almost all key directions.Five years have passed since the previous elections of the same scale. And only the blind can see no positive changes achieved within this period.
Among those positive moments I would possibly mention a very significant for the region meeting of Petr Chubik, rector of Tomsk Polytechnic University, with Boris Gryzlov, Chairman of the RF State Duma. That meeting covered lots of matters, but maybe the most important result of the meeting was that Mr. Gryzlov promised to make the Tomsk Project “Inno-2010” a part of the Federal Project “National Innovation Systems”, and personally control its implementation. It’s more than a mere gesture of courtesy. The Federation recognizes real successes of the region in the most edgy area of our economy. After the Federal Law which allows establishing innovation companies in universities was passed last year, 46 out of 500 companies throughout Russia have been established in Tomsk. And you are aware that only those who work get the support. Another very important point is infrastructure development. Having announced Tomsk as ‘innovative zone’, we automatically condemned ourselves to rearrangement of the whole infrastructure. Really talented specialists will select the place of comfortable and safe habitat, with good schools and health care of high quality. Without all these, we can’t seriously look for research and business elite coming to us. The same goes for the youth.
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