The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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February 26, 2015. Address by Speaker Oksana Kozlovskaya at the 38th Session of the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
Just recently the World Economic Forum published its Global Risks Report 2015 which describes geopolitics as the key global risk. Experts believe it is influenced by the situation in Ukraine, tensions in the Middle East (Syria and Iraq) and North Africa, and the tragic events in Paris, France.
In February, the leaders of ‘Normandy Four’ met in Belarus and signed Minsk peace agreements which have created a basis for a fragile yet real armistice between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics.
The winter months were rich in important national and global scale political and economic events. They share the same agenda of a need to revisit the development principles of the national economies taking into account geopolitical risks.
In February the Russian Cabinet of Ministers published an updated forecast of the socioeconomic development of Russia. At oil price of $50 per barrel the federal budget will lose almost 16% in revenues. The GDP growth rate will go down by 3%. Investments will decrease by more than 13%. Inflation will go up and personal incomes will go down.
Obviously, all of us – government, business, every household has to learn to live in these new conditions.
This is the primary focus of the priority action plan to secure sustainable development of the Russian economy and social stability adopted by the Russian Government for 2015.
Tomsk Oblast along with other regions has developed a stabilization plan which will be considered by the Tomsk Oblast Legislative Duma in March along with the Socioeconomic Development Strategy for 2030. The action items were driven by the results of 2014.
Some numbers
Industrial output index of the Oblast is 100.1%. It’s especially important that the manufacturing industry has demonstrated significant growth (106%) as well as the food industry (107.5%) and housing construction (116.6%). Private investments in fixed assets in 2014 exceeded 108 billion rubles.
Demographic indicators are also demonstrating growth – natural and migration gains are sustainably going up.
The regional government has fully delivered on all social guarantees and commitments.
With all the hardships, last year 12% of the regional budget was spent to support entrepreneurs and certain industries and sectors of economy, build roads, schools, hospitals, and relocate people from unfit housing.
Those achievements are to a great extent the result of our legislative efforts.
Currently, at all levels of government budgets are being adjusted based on the updated forecast by the Russian Government. We will have to work with rapidly shrinking budgets multiplied by low affordability of credit resources.
Together with the region’s Administration we will have to ensure unconditional fulfillment of all items of the approved budget and keep the development momentum going.
Support for innovations
In January 2015, the Russian Government approved the updated concept of the INOTomsk 2020 project. The project takes into account mutual interests of the region’s population, academia, business, and the government. The total cost of the project is estimated at 200 billion rubles.
Only two regions of Russia – Tomsk Oblast and Tatarstan – are developing centers for innovations approved by the federal government – INOTomsk and Innopolis respectively.
In February, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich together with the representatives of Russian Ministries and government agencies visited Tomsk Oblast to review the progress of the project. Many important decisions driving the project forward – on developing the gas supply network, substituting imports, starting the work on ‘Tomsk Embankments’ – were made during the visit of Gazprom’s leader Alexey Miller.
Investors are paying a lot of attention to the quality of the regional legislation in areas such as innovations and investments. On today’s agenda the Duma has two laws of key importance for the adoption of the new Strategy and long-tem priorities of Tomsk Oblast. They are the law On strategic planning in Tomsk Oblast and the law On innovation activity in Tomsk Oblast.
Small business has always played and continues to play a vital role in the development of the region.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service, Russia has 5.6 million small and medium size enterprises. However, in 2014 this number went down by more than 10%.
There are almost 62,000 economic entities in Tomsk Oblast. Small and micro enterprises and sole proprietors account for 75% of the total number. Regrettably, the share of this business is also shrinking in Tomsk Oblast.
The plan developed by the Russian Government includes a number of actions to support small and medium business.
- The definition criteria for the small and medium business are changing. The threshold earnings values are doubled: up to 120 million rubles for micro businesses, up to 800 million rubles for small businesses, and up to 2 billion for medium sized businesses
- Governmental support programs become more accessible – more interest rate subsidies, access to state procurement projects, special support measures for innovative small and medium sized firms
- This category of business will be made eligible for new benefits which will be discussed in March by the Russian Presidential State Council. New benefits include a freeze on the sales tax, reduced insurance contributions, and ‘tax holidays’.
Given the importance of the role small business plays in the economy of Tomsk Oblast, we together with the Oblast Administration will create a work group which will take stock of all regional laws on all categories of entrepreneurship and identify priority categories for governmental support taking into account new challenges.
Creating new jobs is one of the key priorities today.
The 2015 unemployment forecast by the Ministry of Economy shows 6%. It is 434,000 individuals more than the 2014 national average. Key risk areas are tertiary industries such as finance, services, tourism, trade, and the construction industry.
The federation is going to allocate more than 52 billion rubles to boost the labor markets in the regions.
The rules of governmental support have changed. The regions will have to provide practical and requalification training for employees of organizations suffering financial instability.
Also, the regions will have to look for ways to substitute foreign labor with local workforce, which is a mandatory condition for obtaining federal subsidies. In January the flow of foreign workforce into Russia dropped by 70%. In Tomsk Oblast the reduction was 25%. According to the Federal Migration Service, there are 8,000-10,000 foreign citizens working in the region today.
This year will be rich in elections. Twenty municipal entities are electing city and district dumas. Eleven entities are electing heads of municipal districts and city districts. There will also be larger events such as the elections to the Tomsk and Seversk City Dumas, and the elections of the head of Tomsk District.
Last year we made considerable changes to the regional electoral legislation and delineated authorities at various levels of municipal power.
Today we are going to discuss amendments to five regional laws on elections. They will allow early voting for Governor elections and participation of parties not represented in the Duma in municipal elections; and make more specific the rules for developing financial statements for the candidates.
This year the election campaign will not be easy given all financial and economic problems. Price increases, inflation, and dropping incomes have become the hottest issues. We have to find ways to mitigate these processes. In March we will discuss actions to check food and medicine price inflation. Here, we could use the experience of other regions such as Belgorod and Irkutsk Oblasts, Krasnoyarsk and Altai Krais. Large drug retailers and pharmacy chains are also pursuing initiatives to freeze prices on socially sensitive foods and essential medicines.
And lastly, I will talk about another nationally important event which takes place in 2015. It is the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. It makes us seriously rethink our history, our past and future.
We must ensure that our children and grandchildren know the true role the Soviet people played in the Great Patriotic War, know the true face and ideology of fascism, and can tell those who are seeking to rekindle it today.
In April, a delegation from Tomsk will visit Smolensk Oblast to pay honor to mass graves where lay our countrymen – soldiers of the 166th Rifle Division.
The full agenda consists of 54 items.
