President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Medvedev, I asked the Government to prepare an economic development plan and identify promising development areas and ways of achieving these goals between 2017 and 2025. I am referring not only to internal political plans and the domestic political agenda but also to the fact that we had to adjust our 2020 blueprints accordingly, and then the year 2020 is not too far away.
Regardless of personalities, regardless even of the internal political timetable, the country should have clear-cut, comprehensible economic and social development plans.
We know – and you know – that various expert groups are working in line with my directives, but there is no doubt that the work accomplished by the Russian Government should lay the groundwork for all the proposals that have been put forward.
Now I suggest we discuss the Government’s proposals and then consider the results of the work done by various expert groups, after which a final decision will be made.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, in keeping with your directive, indeed, the Government has drafted a comprehensive plan – general approaches to economic and social development between 2017 and 2025, bearing in mind the goal that was set in the Presidential Address, specifically achieving economic growth rates in 2019–2020 at and above the world average. This will enable our economy to develop faster and achieve the main social goals.
This is the focus of the plan as such. It includesa lot of varied proposals, which, as you have just said, can be discussed, bearing in mind that experts are also working on this (by the way, we are also in direct contact with them, naturally, discussing various proposals), and then consider the final version, which can be used as a basis for action.
Vladimir Putin: Very well, agreed. Let us talk in detail about the Government’s proposals, and when our colleagues from the expert groups submit their materials, you and I will study everything very closely again and draw conclusions as to the most promising, interesting and expedient ideas in terms of practical application for generating maximum impact.
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