Taking part in the meeting were representatives of Delovaya Rossiya regional branches and general and coordinating councils, including owners of major Russian companies and members of the expert community.
The agenda included items such as stimulating private investment, reducing the administrative burden and excessive oversight, developing infrastructure, and improving legal regulations.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
I am happy to have this meeting with Delovaya Rossiya, one of the country’s leading business associations.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you, your entire organisation, on a remarkable date: Delovaya Rossiya turned 20 in December. It happened following our meeting in 2001, and on December 10, 2001, it was registered with the Ministry of Justice.
Over these years, your association, your movement, one might say, has united rapidly expanding non-commodity mid-sized businesses across almost all industries and sectors of our economy. Branches have been opened in every constituent entity of the Russian Federation, and colleagues from the regions are also here with us today, you can see them on the screen, they are participating in our meeting.
Such broad representation and deep understanding of entrepreneurs’ problems makes it possible for Delovaya Rossiya to discuss items on the economic, legislative and business agenda in the most concrete way and to conduct a constructive dialogue with government bodies of all levels as partners.
I believe this feedback is extremely important and, moreover, necessary for our joint effective work, for developing strategic decisions on growing the Russian economy and improving the investment climate, and for preparing operational measures to support businesses. For example, such measures were adopted two years ago with the involvement of Delovaya Rossiya and other associations, and recently, too, at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic and as we fought to control it during all these events.
I know that Delovaya Rossiya focuses on improving the business environment and launching new entrepreneurial initiatives to create new modern jobs and industries. We constantly discuss this during personal meetings. This includes improving regulations, supporting investment, expanding infrastructure, digitisation, and so on. We have many items on the agenda.
I am sure you have specific proposals regarding these issues based on practical experience, as it has always been. In fact, this is the purpose of ongoing cooperation at all levels between government and business representatives who work in various associations.
I hope effective decisions that matter to all Russian entrepreneurs will be made as a result of our meeting today as well.
Today, we have online not only members of your movement, or association, but my colleagues from the Government as well. You can see them on the screen. We are at your disposal. I will also take questions, if any, and state my position. As a rule, very specific questions are asked at meetings like this one, very technical, I would say, so I may ask my colleagues from the Government for help. You can see them here on the screen.
Please, let us get to work.
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