The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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Address by Boris MALTSEV at the XLIX Session of the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast (May 31, 2011)
At the beginning of his speech Duma Speaker Boris Maltsev talked about foreign political environment, economic and political issues under the scrutiny of the international community. The Speaker pointed out that those were the top issues on the agenda of G8 summit in Deauville. World leaders were discussing the situations in Syria and Libya, topics such as aid to the poorest African states, nuclear safety, and for the first time at such a high level Internet-related challenges. They asserted freedom of expression and the right to information on the Internet, and called for strengthening the efforts to prevent its usage for terrorism, criminal, and military purposes.
Among the central domestic political events Boris Maltsev marked the first large-scale press conference by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Skolkovo and the initiative by Prime Minister Putin to create ‘People’s Front.’
Another important event that can easily come to national prominence took place in Tomsk at the end of May – the XIV Innovation Forum INNOVUS.
Mass discontent of people at least in one part of the world is an immediate drive for concerns and immediate actions by governments everywhere. Russia is getting affected, too. Our people's discontent with their incomes, salaries, and pensions is growing. And it is growing on the economic ground – labor share in the Russian GDP is 25%-30%. Here I can see the major imbalance of our economy. Part of the GDP that is used to pay wages and salaries must be enough to secure progressive balance in the society and economy. It is not right that the economy is slowed down because of a lack of purchasing power. According to Ludwig Erhard, German Minister of Economy in 1949-1963, notable as the maker of the ‘German economic miracle’, “Buyer demand shall be reasonably ahead of the production capacity.”
The UN has a standard that the minimum wage should be at least 3 US dollars per hour (500 US dollars a month). Average monthly salary should be twice as much. Increasing wages and salaries must not be populist affirmation but a prerequisite for social stability, growth of production rates, and development of innovations.
About the agendaThe agenda includes issues such as the Tomsk Oblast road fund. Money from the fund (motor fuel excise duties, transport tax, state duties, and other proceeds) will be spent on engineering, construction, rebuild, repairs, and maintenance of motor roads. This year 3,096,700,000 rubles of Oblast budget money will be spent for those purposes. By making changes to the system of executive bodies we intend to bring the level of elementary vocational education to that of the intermediate vocational education. Currently, there is a big gap between these two levels. Enforcement of this Law will require well-elaborated development programs for both education systems. At the end of his speech Boris Maltsev said, “Today we shall adopt the resolution of the Governor’s report on the performance of the executive bodies of Tomsk Oblast in 2010 which was presented to us at the previous session by the Governor Viktor Kress, and make changes to a number of previously adopted Laws. I encourage you to work constructively and productively!”
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