The President said in his opening remarks at the meeting that Russia has lost 2,500 historical and cultural monuments in the last decade and more than half of the country’s cultural heritage sites are in need of urgent renovation.
Mr Medvedev named several areas in which undelayable decisions are needed at federal and regional level.
One area is the need to pass laws and regulations on the preservation, use and state protection of cultural heritage sites, tourism development, and creation of the required infrastructure.
Mr Medvedev said that public-private partnerships have a key part to play in this work and called on businesspeople and regional governors to make more use of the standard concession agreement approved by the Government for cultural sites.
The President also spoke on developing children’s and youth tourism to historical sites in Russia, organising youth brigades to carry out archaeological and restoration work, and called for the establishment of a common electronic catalogue of cultural heritage sites to which the general public would have free access.