MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will work on Wednesday on implementation of the government’s anti-crisis plan, the prime minister’s press secretary Natalia Timakova said.
On Tuesday, Medvedev signed an order on the plan’s main provisions. The document will be available on the government’s website on Wednesday, January 28.
"Today, Dmitry Medvedev will have a conference call with regional leaders to discuss local aspects of the plan’s implementation," the press secretary said. They will discuss "organisation of working commissions and drafting plans for regional sustainable development of economies."
The conference call will feature First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Ministers Arkady Dvorkovich and Olga Golodets, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev.
"Besides, on Wednesday, the prime minister will meet with members of the United Russia parliamentary faction to discuss what bills would be necessary for implementation of the plan’s provisions," the prime minister’s press secretary said.
On Monday, Dmitry Medvedev presented the anti-crisis plan to Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters the government approved the anti-crisis plan. "This plan stipulates no increase in budget spending. Moreover, we expect the volume of expenditures to be less than planned," he said.
"All the resources, which will be allocated to implement this plan, will be found in the anti-crisis reserve set aside in the budget whose volume equalled 193 billion roubles [$2.8 billion] at the start of the year," the finance minister said. "Now that some decisions have been made on the use of these funds, this volume equals about 170 billion roubles."
The anti-crisis plan stipulates that the government should pursue adequate budget policy to reach a deficit-free budget by 2017 at the oil price expected at $70 per barrel, the finance minister said. The government also has the task to avoid spending sovereign reserves thoughtlessly, he added.
"The plan is intended for about one year and stipulates the preparation of new structural reforms so that we can have a new quality of state governance, a new quality of the budget and can keep our reserves instead of spending them in a year or two," said Siluanov.
The Russian president also urged the government to think of budget spending optimisation. According to the draft document that was finalised before it was submitted to the Russian president on Monday, the anti-crisis plan should be implemented in three key areas: spurring economic growth, providing support to individual industries and ensuring social stability. Previous reports said a total of 1.375 trillion roubles ($20 billion) would be required to implement measures mapped out by the government. These funds include budget expenditures, state guarantees and spending from the National Welfare Fund.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said at the Davos Economic Forum last week that the government’s anti-crisis plan stipulated support for systemically important companies in industry, the energy sector, agriculture, transport, communications and other sectors.