Plenary session of the 9th Eastern Economic Forum: The President of Russia took part in the 9th Eastern Economic Forum plenary session.

VLADIVOSTOK: The forum’s slogan this year is ‘Far East 2030. Combining Strengths to Create New Potential’.

Vice President of the People's Republic of China Han Zheng and Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim also participated in the session. The discussion was moderated by Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Russia 24 news channel Alexandra Suvorova.

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Alexandra Suvorova: Good afternoon.

It is my great honour and privilege to welcome you to the Eastern Economic Forum’s plenary session.This year, the main theme is Far East 2030: Combining Strengths to Create New Potential.

Mr President, you have repeatedly emphasised the importance of developing Russia’s Far East as a priority for the 21st century. What has been achieved so far and what do we need to accomplish moving forward? How is Russia building relations with its colleagues within the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) and its regional associations?

During this session, we will try to answer these questions together. But before we do that, Mr President, I would like to give you the floor and invite you to address this gathering from the podium.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Anwar Ibrahim,

Mr Han Zheng,

Ladies and gentlemen, friends.

I am delighted to offer warm greetings to all the participants and guests of the 9th Eastern Economic Forum.

It has become a tradition for Russia and the city of Vladivostok to host this event in early September, bringing together businesses, technology providers, research teams, senior executives from major corporations, government officials, specialists, experts and entrepreneurs who are interested in Russia’s Far East and recognise the immense opportunities this unique Russian region offers for launching creative undertakings and engaging in mutually beneficial partnerships.

As you know, and as our moderator Aleksandra pointed out, we have designated the development of the Far East as a national priority for the 21st century. The significance and correctness of that decision have been confirmed by life itself, the challenges we have recently encountered and, most importantly, the objective trends that are gaining momentum in the global economy, when the main business ties, trade routes and the overall development are increasingly shifting towards the East and the Global South.

Our Far Eastern regions offer direct access to these growing emerging markets, helping us overcome the barriers which some Western elites are trying to create worldwide. The most important thing, as I have already mentioned, is that the Far East is a huge area for implementing business initiatives, launching complex projects and creating whole new industries.

In fact, the Far East has become a crucial factor for strengthening Russia’s standing in the world and our flagship in the new global economic reality. The further development of the Far East will largely determine the future of our country as a whole.

This subject – the image of our future – is the key focus of nearly 100 events, panel sessions and roundtable discussions at the Eastern Economic Forum. Overall, representatives of more than 75 countries and territories are taking part in the forum’s events.

It is extremely important that such discussions are complemented with substantive business dialogues and result in the adoption of investment decisions and trade agreements. I would like to say that over a thousand agreements worth in total more than 10.5 trillion rubles were signed during the previous three forums.

In short, the Eastern Economic Forum has rightfully become a respected venue for establishing reliable business contacts and discussing the strategic development of the Russian Far East and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

In my address I will tell you about some of our planned actions in this sphere, our proposals for our foreign partners on strengthening investment, trade, industrial and technological cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as about our achievements and plans in the economy, infrastructure and social sphere of the Far East, including for improving the quality of life for our citizens in this region.

Let me remind you that back in 2013 we launched a new strategic programme and a governance framework for promoting comprehensive development in Russia’s Far East. And this approach has proven its worth. Over the past ten years, over three and a half thousand manufacturing, infrastructure, technology and educational projects have been launched in this region. Over the same period, fixed capital investment has been gathering momentum in Russia’s Far East, with the growth rate exceeding the national average by a factor of three.

This investment brought about tangible results. There are about 1,000 new enterprises here, and these efforts helped create over 140,000 jobs. In terms of industrial output growth, the region has been above the national average by 25 percent since 2013

Let me also remind you that there are currently 16 priority development territories in Russia’s Far East. There is also the Free Port of Vladivostok. We introduced a preferential regime for the Kurils, and established a special administrative district on Russky Island – this is where this meeting is taking place. By the way, this district has offered a pathway for re-shoring assets worth over 5.5 trillion rubles back to Russia from offshore and foreign jurisdictions. More than 100 companies are currently registered here.

We will make sure to continue this advancement and will work tirelessly to improve the business environment in Russia in general, as well as in its Far East, including by relying on innovative and effective practices when working with foreign investors.

For example, we announced the initiative to establish international priority development territories in the Far East at the 2023 Eastern Economic Forum. Foreign investors, primarily from the friendly countries, of course, must benefit from a globally competitive environment.

We have plans to establish our first international priority development territory here in the Primorye Territory. Our Chinese partners, as well as the Republic of Belarus, have shown great interest in this undertaking. Belarus could even contribute to building a new deep-water port here. I would like to ask the State Duma and the Government to step up their efforts to draft a law for launching these international priority development territories.

There is another regulatory solution designed to facilitate and expand our ties with our foreign partners. Starting on September 1, 2024, Russian law allows for the use of foreign standards in construction and design. Of course, this applies to countries where quality and safety requirements for permanent structures are just as high as here in Russia. I hope that this approach serves its purpose, including within the Far East’s international priority development territories.

Developing Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island in the Khabarovsk Territory should serve as a model for working with our foreign partners, attracting investment in construction projects and creating jobs. This project provides for creating major logistics centres and border checkpoints, as well as expanding its road network.

Last May, during the state visit to the People’s Republic of China, we agreed to collaborate with our Chinese colleagues on this project. I am certain that it will provide a good powerful impetus to the development of Khabarovsk and the entire region. I am asking the Government to finalise all the organisational and financial issues in order to begin fulfilling this plan as soon as 2025.

Of course, electricity supply is one of the key issues when it comes to launching business initiatives in the processing industry, in housing construction and in transport network upgrade, across all areas, in fact.

The Russian Far East is experiencing an increase in energy consumption. The current rate is 69 billion kilowatt per hour annually, and by the end of the decade, we expect it to be around 96 billion. Even today, there are areas, residential areas and major Far Eastern investors who face the shortage of power and have to wait for the launch of new stations, which delays construction, the operation of industrial facilities and infrastructure.

I have already instructed the Government, our major energy companies and business circles to develop a long-term development programme for energy capacity in the Far East, and work on respective project financing mechanisms.

This programme aims to eliminate the expected deficit of electric energy in the Far East, primarily by launching new generation facilities like, for example, the Nizhne-Zeiskaya HPP in the Amur Region, which will not only provide electricity to the region and the Eastern Operating Domain but also help protect territories and residential areas from flooding. I am also asking you to consider building nuclear power plants in the Far East. We discussed this with our colleagues yesterday.

I want to emphasise that the power development plan must consider both current and future needs of businesses and the public, as well as the long-term objectives of the constituent entities, cities and smaller residential areas.

This also applies to strengthening transport and logistics capabilities of the Far East and the entire country. The largest and most significant project here is, of course, the expansion of the Eastern Operating Domain.

In the past ten years, more than 2,000 km of railway tracks have been built and more than 5,000 km have been renovated on the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. We have built and renovated more than 100 bridges and tunnels, including those across the Lena, Bureya and Selenga rivers. By the end of this year, the carrying capacity of the Eastern Operating Domain railway network is expected to reach 180 million tonnes.

This year, we launched the third stage of this highly important transport artery, and the works are currently underway.

I want to emphasise that our objective is to eliminate railway bottlenecks and build over 300 facilities, including routes supplementing the Severomuisky, Kuznetsovsky and Kodarsky tunnels, as well as a bridge across the Amur River. This is a much more ambitious goal. It is crucial to start planning for the future today.For example, we will need to lay a second set of tracks along the entire Baikal-Amur Mainline and electrify this railway.

Over the next eight years, we will lay 3,100 kilometres of tracks along the Eastern Operating Domain. To put this into perspective, this is the same volume of tracks that were laid during the first and second stages of expanding BAM and the Trans-Siberian Mainline combined. This is also comparable to the construction of BAM in 1974−1984.

Today, we are implementing a project whose scale exceeds the largest Soviet-era infrastructure investment project completed by all Soviet republics pooling all their resources.

Just like the Trans-Siberian Mainline, the new transport corridor between St Petersburg and Vladivostok will serve as a vital continental artery.

Expanding freight traffic volumes and improving the quality of vehicle traffic are not the only goals. When completed, the new corridor will also promote inbound tourism: the entire route passes through numerous Russian regions.

The corridor is being developed in stages. In December 2023, we opened a modern motorway between Moscow and Kazan. By late 2024, this route will reach Yekaterinburg and later Tyumen. We will also build bypass roads in Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo and Kansk.

In the future, when the modern road reaches Vladivostok, the auto transport corridor will be over 10,000 kilometres long, including routes for accessing checkpoints on the Russian state border.

In this connection, I would like to remind you of the objective set out in the Address to the Federal Assembly, specifically, the reduction of queues at the border and reducing the time in which lorries undergo checks, which should not exceed ten minutes.

We aim to achieve this result at the first five Far Eastern border checkpoints by 2026. It is worth noting that railway checkpoints are already processing freight at the border promptly.

Let me stress this: a truly large-scale effort has been launched at both the Eastern Operating Domain’s railway network and at all of Russia’s major road infrastructure facilities. This effort involves specialists, engineers, and designers from many regions of our country. They are proving through their hard work and responsible approach to business that Russia is ready and able to handle large-scale construction projects, and do it quickly and with high quality, and to implement infrastructure and transport projects on a national and global scale. These projects include the development of the Northern Sea Route as an international logistical route. Over the past decade, the freight traffic flow on this route has increased by an order of magnitude, from just four million tonnes in 2014 to over 36 million tonnes last year. This is 400 percent more than the Soviet-time record.

We will continue to boost the freight traffic, including by developing actively Arctic deposits, rerouting cargo flows from west to east, and expanding the transit.

The large-scale plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route is currently being implemented. We are building icebreakers, expanding our satellite cluster in orbit, strengthening the coastal infrastructure, and upgrading the network of emergency and rescue centres. Coastal cruises were launched on the Northern Sea Route two years ago to familiarise ourselves with new logistical routes. Today, this arrangement includes 14 ports in the Northwest, the Arctic, and the Russian Far East.

It is worth noting that the capacity of Russian ports within the limits of the Northern Sea Route exceeded 40 million tonnes at the end of last year. However, we believe that this is just the beginning. We will continue to increase their capacities, upgrade the cargo transshipment mechanism, and expand the nearby and far-off rail approaches to these ports. One of our goals is to increase the capacity of the Murmansk Transport Hub to 100 million tonnes and potentially even higher.

Let me note that our Eurasian integration partners are also interested in developing the Murmansk Transport Hub. For example, the colleagues from Belarus I have mentioned are giving careful consideration to the prospects for expanding the port infrastructure and their terminals on the Kola Peninsula. Of course, we also invite other countries to take part in this project. I know that there is an interest in this work.

Let me add that Russia implements all its transport and logistical initiatives using advanced engineering, digital and environmental solutions. This creates additional demand for the output of Russian machine-building and iron-and-steel plants, and for services of the construction and other industries, research institutions, and hi-tech businesses.

It is with this approach based on the latest solutions and the greatly improved technological, economic and educational capability of the country as a whole, that we must address the tasks of strategic development of the Far East, including the further strengthening of the region’s basic mineral resources sector.

Today, the Far East accounts for 100 percent of the country’s tungsten, tin, fluor spar and tincal production, 80 percent of diamonds and uranium, over 70 percent of silver, and 60 percent of gold. However, mining in the main production areas, including Yakutia and Chukotka, began long ago and their resources are objectively limited, while the demand for them is growing, both for export and on the domestic market.

We must ensure the resource sovereignty of our country and provide a reliable basis for the sustainable supply of affordable raw materials and fuel to the national economy, to our regions, cities and towns, as well as create a foundation for the production of new materials and energy sources. As I mentioned earlier, we must accomplish this by utilising more effective domestic technologies and scientific solutions in the fields of ecology and mineral resources management.

During our forum last year, we instructed the Government to prepare separate programmes for exploring the resources of the Far East and Siberia and to incorporate them into the Geology. Revival of a Legend federal project.

These programmes have been prepared. According to our estimates, every ruble of federal funds invested in exploration will attract at least 10 rubles of private investment. But the main thing is that these investments will pay back and produce a huge profit, as well as have a comprehensive effect throughout the production chain. However, this job must be completed within the given timeframe and with due regard for the investment planning horizon.

I ask the Government to include the funding of these programmes in the draft three-year federal budget in the amounts necessary for achieving our goals.

As I said, the Far East has the potential to increase the state of geological exploration severalfold, including when it comes to the exploration for and production of high-tech raw materials such as titanium, lithium, niobium and rare earth metals, which we will need for the economy of the future. Most importantly, we have all these elements.

These industries have a huge potential for the growth of our Far Eastern regions, for creating jobs, enhancing the availability of various services, strengthening ties and improving logistics efficiency.

We will support the development of innovative and creative industries, and the infrastructure for the big data and AI economy in the Far East. In particular, we will establish a zone here where civilian purpose drones will be created.

We will continue to build up the scientific and educational potential of the Far East so as to use the advantages of technological progress to full capacity. New projects to build university campuses in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Khabarovsk have been launched in the region, but this is clearly not enough for the Far East.

I propose launching several more projects, namely, to build new campuses in Ulan-Ude, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Chita. We will also complete the second phase of the campus at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. These campuses will have all the necessary conditions for study, work and accommodation of the students, as well as youth entrepreneurship platforms and business clubs.

We will also upgrade our Arctic universities. The project to build a campus in Arkhangelsk will be followed by a similar project in Murmansk.

Innovative engineering schools will be created at university campuses. Two such schools have already opened in Sakhalin and Vladivostok. Their task is not only to train professionals for our industries, agriculture, transport, the services sector and AI spheres, but also to propose unique solutions for broad implementation in management, the social sphere and economic sectors.

A RusHydro science and technology centre has been functioning efficiently on Russky Island for two years. It is focused on innovative global energy research, and its solutions are being actively used in the retooling and modernisation programme of the energy sector in the Far East.

Our leading companies will contribute to the establishment of another major innovative science and technology centre at the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island. It will specialise in research and practical solutions in the fields of marine engineering, biotechnology, biomedicine and other promising spheres.

I urge our colleagues in the Government and in the Primorye Territory to use the Far Eastern concession mechanism for the implementation of that project, as well as to explore ways to attract scientists from other research centres in Russia and other countries to that centre. What I have in mind are competitive incentive programmes and benefits packages for professionals and their families.

Colleagues,

We realise that the successful implementation of our plans in the Far East and nationwide depends primarily on the people and Russian families.

I have already noted that we cannot rely on outdated logic, where new plants and factories were built first and then the authorities started thinking about their employees. This unfair logic simply does not work in a modern economy, an economy of the future that revolves around people.

This is why we have launched major social initiatives together with new economic plans in the Far East. We have also activated the unified subsidy mechanism, which helps fund the construction of schools and kindergartens, outpatient clinics and hospitals and sports centres, improve the urban environment and implement infrastructure modernisation projects. Almost 2,000 social and infrastructure facilities have been built to date.

The unified subsidy has become a powerful financial lever for the Far Eastern concession mechanism. It aims to attract private investment in social projects. Businesses are already planning to invest over 120 billion rubles for this purpose. We are currently implementing 36 of these initiatives, with work already underway.

For example, we are building a year-round alpine skiing resort here in Primorye, as well as a national museum and theatre in Ulan-Ude. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky will receive a new community centre, and an art museum will be completed in Khabarovsk. We are building new sports facilities in Magadan and Chita. We are completely modernising municipal lighting systems in Chita and Birobidzhan. Of course, we will continue to support the Far Eastern concession project and to adjust its mechanism to meet the needs of the people and the capabilities of the business community.

I would like to note separately that, today, the system of public-private partnership helps build schools, airports, bridges and motorways, and to upgrade municipal transport networks across the country. However, the volume of these projects remains small, accounting for less than three percent of the GDP or 4.4 trillion rubles.

To intensify the development of this sector, it is necessary to upgrade specialised legislation. We should also adjust the mechanism of public-private partnership to ensure transparent risk distribution for all the parties involved, including state agencies and businesses. These risks should be distributed equitably, including during the implementation of socially important projects.

Considering the experience and achievements in implementing technological sovereignty projects, I suggest that the VEB.RF Development Corporation becomes a mandatory participant in public-private partnership projects. It should oversee the risk allocation system and confirm the profitability of projects for the state and businesses. Mr Shuvalov and I have discussed this issue, and the corporation is ready for this. Just like the Projects Funding Factory, it should incentivise private investment.

I ask the Government and VEB.RF to chart specific parameters of transactions and their scale within the system of public-private partnership, with the participation of VEB.RF being a requirement.

Next, it is extremely important to attract private investment that aligns with the long-term development plans of our industries and territories, as well as our cities and towns. It is for their comprehensive development that we are actively promoting master plans, which are a fundamentally new mechanism for improving the quality of our people’s lives. Many are aware of this, in particular, our Russian colleagues.

These plans have been approved for 22 administrative centres and urban conglomerates in the Far East, where over four million people live. In particular, a master plan has been prepared for a satellite city of Vladivostok, which will have a cohesive development strategy for the development of a huge conglomerate comprising Vladivostok, Artyom and the Nadezhdinsky District. Its implementation is slated to begin in 2025.

What are the specific features, essence and novelties of these master plans? To understand them, we need to examine the previous situation at the local level. There was poor coordination between economic and urban planning services. Construction, housing and utilities, and social infrastructure were operating by themselves, which led to unbalanced decisions and disjointed urban spaces.

Today, the region and local administrations have held a series of discussions with the public and businesses, which helped pinpoint problem areas, assess the development potential of all aspects of their cities, and prepare individual long-term development models for each of them.

In fact, it was for the first time that one document comprised all socioeconomic and spatial development models that included the construction of transport, housing and utilities, energy and other infrastructure. As I said, the integral part of these plans is to improve the quality of people’s lives. It is our main goal.

Many elements of these Far Eastern master plans are still at the design stage, but we can say confidently that 70 facilities will be completed this year. In future, the implementation of these master plans must be accelerated.

The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic has compiled a special rating of regions and agencies that are particularly active in this sphere. The current leaders in the implementation of these master plans are the Sakhalin and Magadan regions, the Republic of Buryatia, and the Kamchatka and Khabarovsk territories. I would like to thank our colleagues for their significant progress and ask them to continue building momentum.

At the same time, I would like to note that we will monitor the implementation pace of the Far Eastern master plans every year and recognise the best regional teams and federal agencies. This will allow other colleagues to learn from their success and adopt their best practices.

I should add that decisions have been made regarding additional budget loans for Government-approved master plans. Thirty billion rubles have already been allocated – as additional funding, I want to emphasise that. I propose allocating 100 billion rubles from the approved loan limit for 2025–2030 specifically for the master plans of our Far Eastern and Arctic cities, which will exceed the limits that the regions will receive as regular disbursement.

We should not forget about the urban development plans as we develop new national projects that are currently in their final stages. Moreover, it is necessary to allocate funds for specific sections, primarily for such national projects as Infrastructure for Living, Effective Transport System, Family, Long and Active Life, and Youth and Children.

What else is important? Half of the expenses under the master plans of the Far Eastern cities are covered by non-budgetary sources – that is, business investment and backbone enterprises that are willing to build outpatient clinics and kindergartens, sport facilities, roads, utilities networks, and restore cultural monuments, and so on.

As I said, we will certainly support such business investment. I am confident that, as the transformation of the cities and towns gains pace, the share of private investment will undoubtedly grow as well, including from our strategic partners such as large enterprises that take an active role in city renovation under their own social responsibility programmes in their present locations. We should take advantage of their results, capacities and experience when implementing the master plans.

Our strategic partners could, for example, fully fund a social infrastructure facility in a city, a town or a residential area where their investment projects are located. After this social facility is transferred to the municipality or the region, these investors will receive compensation in the form of tax rebates, concessions and other privileges. I am asking the Government to outline the parameters of this mechanism.

I want to stress that the experience of the Far East will serve as the basis for scaling up this master plan practice. As stated in the Address to the Federal Assembly, by 2030, these strategic documents will be developed for 200 Russian cities and towns. We will be scaling up this effort, from 22 areas in the Far East today to 200 areas nationwide, including the backbone cities that contribute to strengthening Russia’s technological sovereignty.

To continue: A comfortable urban environment and large-scale social infrastructure are essential components of modern residential developments. Far Eastern investors involved in implementing these projects are entitled to benefits envisaged for priority development areas under the Far Eastern Quarter mechanism, which is currently being applied in pilot mode in seven regions. It is planned to build 1,800,000 square metres of housing for almost 70,000 people with its help.

Generally, let me note that the amount of housing built in the Russian Far East every year for the past five years has grown by about 100 percent. This is a good indicator. It is expected that 5,600,000 square metres of housing will be completed by the end of this year.

An important and indeed decisive role in this sense has been played by the Far Eastern mortgage scheme. As you may know, we have extended it to participants in the special military operation. Loans issued at the record low interest rate of two percent are also available to young families, where the parents are under 36 years of age, as well as to recipients of the Far Eastern Hectare, employees of defence plants, teachers, and doctors. The same mortgage plan – on the same terms – is available in the Arctic regions.

We have extended these programmes until the end of 2030. I know that the Government discussed the terms of this mortgage plan for the future. I suggest that we put a full stop here and leave the interest rate for the Far Eastern and Arctic mortgage plans unchanged at two percent per year.

Let me add that since last year, families in the Primorye Territory that have a third child are entitled to a higher sum for mortgage repayment – one million instead of 450,000 rubles, as in the rest of the country.

We have agreed that the same payment of one million rubles should be introduced for families with many children in all Far Eastern regions, where the birth rate is lower than the average for the Federal District. I ask my colleagues to speed up the approval of relevant laws so that this measure enters into effect as of July 1 of this year, that is, retroactively.

I would like to dwell separately on issues that are of great importance for families and our citizens who live far from the “mainland,” so to say. I mean hard to access small towns and villages in the Russian Far East and the Arctic.

Our goal is to ensure regular and uninterrupted supplies for these communities, while also reducing delivery time and costs. Last year, we passed a law governing the supply of essential goods to the northern territories, which enabled us to switch to a centralised approach when planning these deliveries at the federal level, while the regions coordinate the way it is implemented on the ground.

The transport sector views shipping and handling essential goods as an utmost priority. We can issue budget loans for buying and delivering these essentials to the northern regions. There is also an effort to develop the core elements of the transport and logistics network we use for these deliveries, including roads, railway stations, seaports and river ports, and airports.

Starting in 2025, a single sea operator will be tasked with overseeing deliveries to the northern territories. For now, this project will run in pilot mode. This operator will handle cargo shipments in Chukotka. Moving forward, the project will also cover Yakutia, the Kamchatka Territory, as well as the Arkhangelsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Healthcare services for people living in remote communities, cities and villages, are a separate topic. Some settlements in Russia’s Far East can only be accessed by rail. And they lack specialists for offering health check-ups and occupational health assessments, and providing other healthcare services.

A mobile diagnostics centre will start operating across five regions of Russia’s Far East this September, and next year eight more regions will be added to this scheme. This train will be a real outpatient clinic and a pharmacy on wheels with advanced equipment and specialist doctors.

They will be able to carry out a wide range of tests and to seek advice from their colleagues at Russia’s leading research centres, while using AI when drafting medical opinions. Of course, they will offer professional healthcare services, considering that all people in Russia need them regardless of where they live.

In this context, I would like to thank Russian Railways and all the doctors, nurses, railway workers and other specialists who are taking part in this noble undertaking. People really need it. I would like to ask the Government to help this company and ensure that this cutting-edge train-based medical facility and pharmacy does its jobs in an uninterrupted and effective manner.

There is one more thing. We will continue our efforts to develop local air service in order to bring cities and villages in Russia’s Far East closer to one another. As I have already said, we expect annual passenger traffic on domestic flights within the region to reach four million people. I have instructed the Government to approve a plan setting forth specific steps and initiatives to achieve this. It goes without saying that the effort to draft it has been too slow, which means that all the decisions we need in this regard must be taken without delay.

The air fleet is, of course, a major issue. We must build our own planes that are reliable and meet our quality requirements, and they must be produced in sufficient quantities. In this context, I am asking the relevant entities to step up their efforts to develop a passenger version of the Baikal, a light multi-purpose aircraft. It must enter serial production soon. Meanwhile, you must keep in mind that its price and characteristics must be competitive so that the airline tickets when using these planes are affordable for our people. Otherwise, we will have to offer subsidies of some sort.

Friends,

In the past few years, the Far East has gained popularity among young people seeking interesting careers, as well as trained specialists looking to showcase their skills and expertise in various fields.

Over the past eight years, the Far East has experienced a consistent rise in the number of young people between the ages of 20 and 24, thanks to our targeted support measures.

For example, we increased lump-sum payments under the Country Teacher, Country Doctor and Country Paramedic programmes. Today, teachers and doctors who relocate to Far Eastern villages and towns receive two million rubles each, while each nurse and paramedic receives one million rubles. We have already agreed to extend these programmes until 2030 and to maintain the double rate of regional payments for the Far East.

Another decision concerns the Country Culture Worker programme, which aims to support the employees of rural clubs, art centres, libraries, music schools and museums. In effect, these people protect our cultural sovereignty and identity, our traditional values, and educate young people.

I ask the Government to start implementing this programme from January 1, 2025. Of course, we need to stipulate higher regional lump-sum payments for culture workers moving to Far Eastern communities, and we should also involve them in the Far Eastern Mortgage programme.

I would like to add that we will continue to establish new museums in the Far East. As part of this work, I would like to instruct the concerned officials to perpetuate the memory of the Kuril amphibious landing, one of the final battles of World War II. This event symbolises the courage of our officers and soldiers who captured the seemingly impregnable enemy fortifications.

Colleagues,

Dedicated, courageous people with strong spirits where the ones who wrote the history of Russia’s Far East, a huge region that accounts for almost 40 percent of our national territory. They studied and defended this land, preserved and perpetuated the traditions of its indigenous people, added new locations to the map of Russia, built cities, factories, roads and developed mineral deposit sites.

Among our forefathers who developed the Far East there was a sense of devotion to serving their cause and their Fatherland. And the love of their Motherland enabled them to pursue grand and ambitious designs and objectives. Even today, their heroism, self-sacrifice and accomplishments inspire so many of our people, and all these specialists − doctors, teachers, cultural workers, whom I have just mentioned, university faculty members, business owners – everyone working in Russia’s Far East or who plans to dedicate their lives to this region, including officials in regional administrations and municipalities.

Launched in 2022 in this region, the Muravyov-Amursky Programme provides for training public administration officials. We have expanded it to include the Arctic region. It has been quite popular and competitive with up to 80 applications per scholarship. People who are young and ambitious can see that developing the Far East and the Arctic is one of the most interesting and promising objectives for our country. We will make sure to extend this programme at least until 2030.

Let me reiterate that government bodies at all levels, as well as the business community, NGOs and people in general will have to make a meaningful contribution to carrying out new national projects and programmes. Through these efforts, these undertakings will acquire a Far Eastern dimension and will facilitate the development of this region considering its strategic importance for Russia, as well as improve the quality of life there.

Of course, we will expand ties between Russia’s Far East and our country in general with our foreign partners, friends, states and corporate entities, who are interested in promoting steady, lasting and mutually beneficial cooperation. This would enable us to further strengthen Russia’s international standing.

I am certain that together, we will succeed in these endeavours.

Thank you for your attention.

Alexandra Suvorova: Thank you, Mr President.

Kremlin.