Plenipotentiary Presidential Represenative To the Far Eastern Federal District Oleg Safonov: In general, our analysis of the situation in the district enables us to characterize the situation as stable and steadily improving.
In 2007, the rate of growth of economic development of the Far East region improved significantly. Gross regional product is now almost 130 billion roubles. This is an increase of 113.6 percent compared to 2006. And the results in 2006 were a 105 percent improvement on 2005. In virtually every way, real incomes for the region’s people have increased.
President Vladimir Putin: The question is by how much. People’s incomes have increased right across the country, but in this region they have to grow faster. So far this has not been the case.
Oleg Safonov: True, but the people do understand that the federal authorities have made a commitment to the Far East. They believe that the implementation of infrastructure projects which have been approved in the Program for the Development of the Far East and Trans-Baikal Regions through to 2013 will qualitatively improve the lives of the region’s inhabitants.