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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
Brief outline of the speech of Boris Maltsev,
Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma,
at the XL Duma Session The beginning of this summer was marked by a number of important international events. Among them, unfortunately, were armed conflicts and human losses. Here I mean seizure of aid ships by Israeli forces, and violence in Kyrgyzstan. The international community, UN, and the Russian President condemned actions of Israel and called for a thorough investigation of its actions. In Kyrgyzstan they helped stabilize the situation and provided humanitarian assistance.
Against this background, the summit of Russia and the European Union in Rostov-on-Don, together with the meetings of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, are a good confirmation that in current circumstances safety, stability and development can be promoted by joint effort only.
Such was the approach chosen for curing the global economy at the peak of the crisis which delivered positive results. A good evidence of that are the results of the 14th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Representatives of some 100 countries and 700 well-known companies gathered at the Forum to discuss future prospects for the first time after the crisis. Key political figures and leading businessmen had a comprehensive discussion of major challenges facing Russia, developing countries, and the international community. The Forum resulted in signing of contracts with a total value of 5bn US dollars, and a number of agreements. Russia and France signed 10 such documents. One of their memorandums was signed by our Governor Viktor Kress in the presence of the Russian and French Presidents.
Finally, these days the entire world is watching the World Cup 2010. The organizers believe that on the whole over 4bn people will watch the games. Football matches bring happiness to some, frustration to the others, and provoke big scandals. However, first and foremost, for all football fans the World Cup is a fantastic and spectacular event. When national teams win, their nations celebrate victory; when they lose it is a national tragedy.
Tomsk Oblast continues its energetic efforts to promote international relations.
Viktor Kress met with the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Irkutsk and headed the Oblast delegation at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Tomsk hosted an international seminar on energy efficiency. Over 700 researchers from all over the world discussed nuclear power industry issues in Tomsk Polytechnic University.
Among other important events in our region I would highlight the session of the Cultural Council under the Russian Ministry of Culture chaired by the Minister Aleksander Avdeyev. The session was dedicated to innovative approaches to preservation and usage of the cultural heritage of the region. At the end of the session the Ministry and Tomsk Oblast signed a mutual agreement.
All these events are directly related to the national and regional economies. When the economy is profitable, culture, science and innovations thrive.
In October 2005 the Duma adopted the Tomsk Oblast Development Strategy until 2020. The key goal of the Strategy is improvement of the national welfare and living standards. This goal must be achieved through creation of a dynamic, competitive and balanced regional economy based on innovative companies with high and stable growth potential and high labor efficiency. In three month our Strategy gets five years old. The times and the crisis remind us of the words of one of the most far-sighted politicians of the 20th century Winston Churchill, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results”.
And here is the result. One of the goals set by the Strategy is ‘High Investment Attractiveness’.
It consists of four parameters.
1. Total fixed investments per capita. Plan for 2010 was 35,000 rubles, forecast – 112,000 rubles. That is almost 300%.
2. Total public investments per capita. Plan for 2010 was 2,000 rubles, forecast – 16,400 rubles. Over 800% growth.
3. Total foreign investments per capita (in US dollars). Plan – 250 US dollars, forecast – 600 US dollars. Over 200%.
4. Share of foreign investments in the total volume of investments. Plan – 20%, forecast – 12%. Failure.
Total spending in 2006-2009 for the goal ‘High Investment Attractiveness’ amounted to 530.6m rubles. Well, the originators of the Strategy may have set the bars low and underrated the dynamics of economic processes. However, in general much has been done, and almost all plans have been fulfilled. Yet, for a substantial step forward we still need to do a lot and certain parameters should be thoughtfully revised.
Now it is obvious to everyone that without new large scale factories using state-of-the-art technologies with high labor capacity which manufacture world competitive products we will not survive. And it is all about investments. Sadly, many related Strategy objectives, their parameters and actions aimed at attracting strategic investors to the region remain incomplete in many aspects.
And I believe it would be reasonable to listen to a report of the people responsible for this part of the Strategy at the nearest session of the Economic Policy Committee.
The project ‘Tomsk – a City of Innovations’ is an attempt to tailor the national policy to the needs of the innovative sector of the economy at the regional level. The essence of the project is a secret dream of the Oblast Administration to attract leaders of the global innovative business to Tomsk so that they create there their research pilot production facilities. Here I do not mean competition with our universities or research institutes. I am talking about capitalization of their R&D products.
My opinion is that a vital role here must be played by the Technical Innovation Zone. However, even our SEZ is unable to cover the whole field of research carried out at our universities and academic institutes.
Let us take nuclear power industry and peaceful use of the atom as an example. Neither Skolkovo nor Tomsk SEZ will be involved with it. So why don’t we create a municipal enterprise Tomsk Atompolis on the basis of Tomsk Nuclear Center for commercialization of achievements in that area? First of all, it is peaceful uses of the atom. For example, we could develop a new isotope generation technology for the purposes of nuclear diagnostics.
Seversk could finance this facility by allocating one percent of the municipal budget on an annual basis and provide it with premises. Seversk has enough of them. Tomsk Atompolis will be the first municipal technopolis in Russia.
For our country it is very important to attain high levels of health care treatment. Tomsk Medical University is the oldest in Siberia; it has modern clinical units. We have 6 institutes of the Academy of Medical Sciences with wards for patients. We have large pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, etc. An impressive potential, indeed! In fact, it is a ready-made basis for a Tomsk Medipolis. It will promote health care development in the region and the whole Siberia. Financing and premises could be provided by the Oblast – the Duma and the Oblast Administration. Again, Medipolis could be financed through allocation of one percent of the Oblast budget each year.
In this manner, Tomsk Oblast will be the first Russian region to establish technology clusters at three levels:
- Federal – SEZ
- Regional – Tomsk Medipolis
- Municipal – Tomsk Atompolis
Those technology clusters should become a link between science and industry and eliminate gaps separating science from manufacturing facilities. Of course, so far it is just an idea which emerged from global experience and visits to our universities, research institutes, and innovative companies. For sure it needs a comprehensive elaboration.
About the agenda
A significant amount of items on today’s agenda concern control functions of the Duma. Each year we adopt a very important law and that is the law on the budget. You all understand that mere adoption of a good law is not enough. Much more important is the execution of the law to the fullest extent.
Today, looking at the results of 2009 we must evaluate the execution of the Oblast budget, the budget of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, efficiency of public property utilization, and performance of Oblast-owned enterprises.
It is important not only to listen to those who enforce our laws and compliment or reproach them, but also to draw lessons for ourselves. What we can do to improve our monetary and property-related laws.
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