|
The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
May 27, 2010. XXXIX Session of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma As always, the Session was opened by Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma (brief outline of the opening speech).
In the second reading the Oblast Law ‘On theaters and theatrical business in Tomsk Oblast’ was passed. This Law is the first of its kind in Russia.
The Law regulates competences of the public authorities of Tomsk Oblast, defines forms of public support, rights and responsibilities of theaters, and stipulates certification of creative professionals working for the Oblast national theaters, and keeping of records of the Oblast theaters at the governmental level.
The Law also regulates business activity of theaters, including sale of souvenirs and flowers, producer activity, manufacturing of goods and provision of services related to the primary activity of theaters. In accordance with the Law theaters can set prices for tickets, compile a repertoire, and define their development priorities. Also, within the scope of responsibility of theaters remains the spectators’ safety during the performance as well as security of their belongings in the cloakroom.
It is worthwhile noting that Tomsk Oblast has the biggest number of laws concerning art and culture in the country such as laws on libraries, museums, national and cultural autonomies, indigenous minorities of the North, and traditional crafts. The new Law was adopted as part of the Oblast Law ‘On national policy in the sphere of culture and art’.
Currently, the Oblast has a number of Oblast national theaters, three municipal and three private theaters, and over 90 theatrical organizations of various statuses.
In the second reading the deputies passed the Law ‘On the Ombudsman for Children of Tomsk Oblast’. The position of the Ombudsman for Children in the regions was established under the recommendation of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The Law sets a procedure for appointment and termination of the Ombudsman for Children of Tomsk Oblast, their scope of authority, goals and institutional arrangements of their activity. The power to appoint or terminate the Ombudsman for Children will lie with the State Duma of Tomsk Oblast. The institution of the Ombudsman for children in Tomsk Oblast will start functioning on January 1, 2011.
In the second reading the deputies passed the Law ‘On physical training and sports in Tomsk Oblast’. The Law secures the powers of the Oblast public authorities, as well as main goals and objectives in physical training and sports.
The Law was significantly reviewed before its second reading to include proposals of the Oblast deputies. For example, the revised Law gives greater consideration to the development of paralympic sports. Indeed, people with disabilities and disabled athletes need much more attention and support than the participants in conventional sporting events.
The new regulation also stipulates creation of conditions for the development of priority sports in order to promote the sports where our athletes enjoy best results in domestic and international competitions. The Law defines a mechanism to improve training of high-performance athletes and a sporting bench strength. Also, the Law determines a procedure for creating and equipping sports teams. These changes and amendments will bolster the development of a reserve of sports teams in Tomsk Oblast and training of Tomsk athletes for Russian and international competitions, and Olympic Games. This will help pick promising young athletes and develop individual training programs for them. Apart from that, a system of continuous control and analysis of training efficiency will be created.
The Law touches upon measures for the development of physical training and sports in educational institutions in Tomsk Oblast.
Also, it determines incentives for outstanding athletes and couches such as payment of annual scholarships to the best athletes of Tomsk Oblast – members of regional sports teams and national teams – and couches who trained the best athletes. Also, one-off monetary awards will be provided to athletes and their couches for the first three places in official domestic and international competitions.
Retired athletes did not escape attention, too. Those who had outstanding achievements in their sports career and were awarded with orders and medals of the Russian Federation, and those with honorary titles will get additional financial assistance.
Tomsk citizens took active part in developing the physical training and sports Law.
The deputies adopted amendments to certain Laws of Tomsk Oblast related to electoral legislation.
The Oblast Law ‘On municipal elections in Tomsk Oblast’ now defines a new procedure for distributing deputy seats among political parties who overcame a 7%-barrier. The quota method used before, was replaced with a divider method. The former method would give a seat not to the first party but to one of the following parties. When the divider method is used, an additional seat is allocated to the party who won the elections by a wide margin. The leading party will get an additional seat only if the margin of victory is no less than 10%.
The new system became a subject of hot debates.
Within ‘A Governor’s Hour’ the deputies were presented a report by Aleksander Cherevko, Deputy Governor of Tomsk Oblast, and Head of the Representative Office of Tomsk Oblast Administration in the Government of the Russian Federation. He reported on the activity of the Representative Office in recent years.
The Representative Office was established in accordance with the Law of the State Duma of Tomsk Oblast more than 10 years ago. Its major task is to represent the interests of Tomsk Oblast at the federal level. The Representative Office in Moscow also promotes a good image of investment attractiveness of Tomsk Oblast, attracts investments and charity, and assists the Oblast Governor during his visits to the capital.
The Office has always taken active part in the most important events for the region such as the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Tomsk. To that end, the Representative Office obtained 1.5bn rubles from the federal budget. It helped organize the 2006 "Russian-German Summit" and "Innovation Forum". As part of the expert group it was involved in determination of the winner of the contest to host a Special Economic Zone of technical innovation type.
Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, asked Mr. Cherevko about the status of work aimed at attracting investments in Tomsk Oblast. The answer was – the Representative Office has been inviting residents to Tomsk SEZ, negotiating with foreign innovation centers, and promoting investment projects in Austria and Switzerland. Also, it held negotiations with Metro and IKEA on building shopping malls in Tomsk. As a result, this year Metro opens a shopping and entertainment mall in the territory of Tomsk, IKEA are just about to sign the contract, and a number of large companies are in the process of negotiations.
Aleksander Cherevko said that ‘over ten years of existence the Representative Office has become a government agency which is able to effectively promote the development of the region in the center of the country.’
‘It owes much to continued and comprehensive support of the State Duma of Tomsk Oblast, and Oblast and City Administrations. And it is a great honor for us to represent our region in Moscow, all the more so thanks to the tremendous authority of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma and its Speaker Boris Maltsev, in particular.’
In two readings the deputies adopted the Law ‘On hunting and preservation of hunting species and lands in Tomsk Oblast’. It regulates relations in the hunting sector of the region. The underlying idea was to describe hunting practices within a legal framework and lay out basics of hunting industry in Tomsk Oblast as a variety of business activity. The Law also defines powers of Tomsk Oblast authorities in the sphere of hunting and preservation of hunting species and lands and includes a list of commercial hunting species in the territory of the region.
Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, held a traditional press-conference for journalists during the break.
In the first place, the Speaker emphasized the importance of initiatives put forward by the faction of the United Russia party on an increase in budgetary funding of immediate needs (over 600m rubles) such as spring flood control measures, payment of salaries to public sector workers, increasing capacity of Tomsk kindergartens, modernization of utility facilities, and construction of new state-of-the-art sporting grounds in Tomsk.
Answering the question on the adopted Law ‘On the Ombudsman for Children of Tomsk Oblast’ the Speaker expressly described his attitude.
‘I have been a strong proponent of this Law for many years now. As early as in 2002 at a Special Session on Children the United Nations Organization demanded that the Russian Federation establishes the institution of Ombudsmen for Children. Today, each year 100 000 children are abused in our country. So, this institution was immediately established in a number of the regions, including our neighbors – Krasnoyarsk Territory and Kemerovo Region – in 2003. But we do that only 7 years after. As the Law has been adopted, we must find a candidate for that position, now. We cannot wait for 7 years more.’
Boris Maltsev dwelled upon another ‘children’s issue’ – gifted children.
‘Speaking about innovative universities, SEZ, and innovative economy – the economy of knowledge – we must ensure that we have talented workforce. We should start training them from the first day they go to school. To that end, special schools need to be opened. This is a Tsar times-old tradition. A good example was the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. We do have a basis for that. But it needs to be developed.’
|
|
|
