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January 25, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
or “development of a network of medical research centres.”
The passport, by contrast, divides the national project into eight sub-projects, giving detailed tasks for each of them as well as completion dates. The sub-section “development of the primary health care system” is divided into 35 points with specific provisions such as “replace- ment of 1,200 worn out healthcare centres and ambulance stations” or “construction of no less than 78 helicopter landing platforms for medical organizations.” The total budget for the health- care national project is, according to the pass- port, RUB2.2 trillion ($33.4bn)
to be spent between 2019 and 2024.
On a more anecdotal note, the size of these pass- ports also give a good idea of the state’s priori- ties: with 90 pages, the document for the “digital economy” national project stands way above most other projects (usually between 35 and 50 pages long).
Dancing digits
Despite these additional details, doubts persist over the feasibility of the projects as well as their relevance: head of the Audit Chamber Alexey Kudrin criticised the national projects in Janu- ary, saying he “had not seen” the final version
and the current projects were mostly “numbers and indicators dancing.” Kudrin also claimed the national projects would not be enough to achieve growth rates that would put Russia among the
top 5 of the world’s biggest economies. For this, “institutional and structural steps” are needed, according to him. The former finance minister has long lobbied for major structural reforms, includ-
ing in sensitive areas such as an overhaul of the justice system and renewed anticorruption drive, to improve the business climate and kickstart economic growth.
A month earlier, Kudrin raised more specific con- cerns about the “ecology” national project, noting that “more than 80%” of the project’s financing” was based on extra-budgetary funds, while there was still no clear understanding of how the funds would be raised.
Financing will likely remain the key issue for the projects’ completion. Existing state programmes are already being updated to fit with the national projects, the government announced in early January: the state programme "Employment Assistance,” which was started in 2014, will, for example, be amended to include the cost of ad- ditional formation for workers close to the re- tirement age who face threats of dismissal, one of the provision of the “employment” national project. The Economy ministry’s “Economic De- velopment and Innovation Economy” programme will also be changed in order to deal with four national projects: “Small Businesses”, “Digital Economy”, “Demography” and “Labour Produc- tivity”. Overall, Kommersant reports, the financ- ing of these programmes should jump from RUB871.4bn to RUB1.6 trillion ($24.3bn) to put them in line with requirements of the national projects.
Despite this, the state will be asking Russia’s big companies to make an effort too: in December, Putin called on businesses to participate in the implementation of the national projects, especial- ly in the labour productivity sphere.