MOSCOW, August 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has promised 700 billion rubles for the development of Crimea and Sevastopol.

“The total volume of the program financing during the next five years will be almost 700 billion rubles, including 660 billion rubles from the federal budget,” he said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

“The funds are huge, but our state budget can provide them. They, every ruble from them must be used with utmost efficiency to bring benefit to the Crimean residents and all other residents of our country,” the prime minister said.

Medvedev said that the federal target program “Socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol until 2020” should fully synchronize the life and further development of the new regions with the rest of Russia, he added.

The prime minister said that socio-economic indicators of the peninsula’s development now are several times behind the country’s average. So, the program should raise the peninsula’s living standards to the general living standards in Russia and create conditions for Crimea’s sustainable development.

Medvedev said the program contains specific consistent steps, in particular, for ensuring transport accessibility and removal of infrastructure limitations. In the transport sphere, the funds will be mainly spent on the construction of a bridge crossing over the Kerch Strait, on the reconstruction of airports, seaports and automobile roads. “In the power industry, the program provides for measures aimed at the development of the grid complex, creation of the local generation; this should ensure reliable power supply of the peninsula,” Medvedev said. He added that other key tasks were ensuring uninterrupted water supply of Crimea and coastal reinforcement, as well as upgrading of the purification facilities and solid domestic waste management systems.

According to the prime minister, in the social sphere the program envisages the construction and reconstruct of healthcare and education facilities. The government head said that these facilities in the Crimea “have the condition of the 1970s of the past century.” The construction of industrial parks and high technology parks is also planned.

The prime minister said the program’s implementation should be based on strict observance of the environmental protection legislation, “because Crimea is a unique land and its riches should be preserved and treated it in a way that differs from the treatment of the former authorities.”

Medvedev added that the peninsula’s tourism potential should be used in full. The program has a separate article devoted to this issue.