The Government of the Russian Federation has been instructed to reduce annual federal budget spending in 2015–2017 by at least 5% in real terms, except for federal spending that goes to national defence and national security, by reducing ineffective spending.
The instructions to the Government also concern the coordination of work to place orders for purchasing import equipment, works and services abroad within the framework of major investment projects implemented by government organisations and joint stock companies in which the state holds more than 50% of stock, or foreign projects implemented with state support; access for small and medium-sized enterprises to procurements carried out in accordance with the Federal Law On Purchase of Goods, Works and Services by Certain Types of Legal Entities; and improving the system for vocational training.
The Government has also been instructed to ensure that Russian legislation is amended with regard to control and supervisory activities over small businesses and ensuring that taxation and premium payment procedures remain unchanged during the 2015–2018 period. It has also been instructed to make legislative amendments that would allow Russian entities to repatriate their offshore funds to Russia without tax or criminal liability.
Moreover, the Government has been instructed to organise and hold in 2015 the Year of Fighting Cardiovascular Diseases; complete the transition to compulsory medical insurance by January 1, 2016; introduce an educational certificate for professional retraining and advanced training for doctors.
Instructions also concern state control over the quality of work by medical and pharmaceutical organisations; extending the Accessible Environment state programme through 2020; financing the system for supplementary education for children; identifying gifted children with technical or humanitarian talent, creativity and inventiveness, and supporting such children and monitoring their further development; establishing a monthly Presidential grant to be provided to no more than 5,000 gifted children entering higher education institutions.
Several instructions concern the economic development of certain Russian regions, including the Far East and Baikal regions, Vladivostok, the Northern Sea Route, and priority development areas.
The Government has been instructed to provide in its mid-term forecasts on Russia’s socioeconomic development a scenario that contemplates a reduction in inflation down to a 4% level, annual growth of Russia’s economy at rates exceeding the global average, an increase in labour production of no less than 5%, and determine conditions for achieving these indicators while simultaneously ensuring macroeconomic stability.
The Government has been instructed together with the Central Bank to take the necessary measures to recapitalise systemically important credit organisations provided they direct additional financial resources toward providing loans for projects in the real sector of the economy at affordable rates.
The Government has been instructed jointly with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives to Promote New Projects, the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading universities and business and entrepreneurial associations to organise the development and implementation of the National Technology Initiative.
It has been recommended to the Central Bank, jointly with the Government, to take coordinated measures to curb speculative activities and prevent cases of manipulation on the Russian currency market.
The Russian Defence Ministry has been instructed jointly with the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Bank of Russia and relevant federal agencies to develop and implement a system for monitoring the use of funding when placing and fulfilling the state defence order.
The Education and Science Ministry has been instructed jointly with public professional organisations to improve the quality of education in schools.
The Agency for Strategic Initiatives to Promote New Projects, with participation by Vnesheconombank, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and relevant federal executive authorities, has been instructed to ensure the development of an institutional and financial mechanism for promoting accelerated development in medium-sized non-resource companies with export potential.