National projects — a shorter working week, higher living standards, and available life-saving medicines — were discussed. Dmitry Medvedev and the ministers held a meeting with the expert community on "Dialogue" on the Rossiya 24 channel today. What hinders the development of entrepreneurship? How does the "regulatory guillotine" work and where is it already set to work?
Tatiana Remizova also managed to ask the prime minister her questions.
For six months on the air, ministers and deputy prime ministers have been the heroes of "Dialogue". The peculiarity of the format is that it's a conversation in an informal atmosphere. Today is the time to take stock of a series of meetings on national development goals. The prime minister was invited to the studio. There are representatives of business, culture, and federal ministers. The head of the Russian Government Office brought a few suitcases full of documents.
This is the list of Soviet legal acts to be subject to the regulatory guillotine. These are current rules and regulations, many of which are over 100 years old. Right before the program began, the prime minister put the guillotine into action.
Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Russia: "I signed an order today that acts of the USSR and the RSFSR should cease to be effective on January 1st, 2020. Here's Konstantin Anatolyevich Chuchenko. Look at these piles of documents. These actually aren't regulations, but lists of them".
Konstantin Chuchenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia: Today you set a record in the entire history of the government. It's never happened that an order with an annex consisting of 1,992 pages, and this annex is a list of 20,419 regulations.
Dmitry Medvedev: Name some of them.
- Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR as of 10/29/1917 on an 8-hour working day. Decision of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR as of 09/09/1961 on the approval of republican specifications for sausages of poultry and rabbit meat.
- We've been living in new conditions for almost 30 years. And these acts remain in force and very often tie business hand and foot.
The Ministry of Economic Development published a special white paper on food service without sanitary regulations and norms. In January, they'll begin to test it in three pilot regions — Moscow, Kaliningrad, and Tatarstan.
Maxim Oreshkin, Minister for Economic Development: "If we see that the quality and safety of service aren't affected, then we'll be able to spread it all over the country faster".
The availability of painkillers and unregistered medications for children is a pressing topic. The task is to establish our own production. While we don't have it, we should ensure their import from abroad.
Dmitry Medvedev: "This is a very difficult story. There’s nothing to talk about. The order has been signed, the money has been allocated, and children will receive these medications. I hope that it'll happen very soon. We need to create such a regulatory framework that will allow doctors, within the framework of the existing procedure, of course, prescribe these medications without fear if medically required. Then, this problem won't exist".
A four-day working week was loudly discussed. The prime minister's idea was interpreted in many ways. There were different opinions and doubts.
Dmitry Medvedev: “What does it mean? Do they want to pay people for a four-day week if he works four days per week, so it's a way to reduce wages? Of course, no. It’s about introducing flexible regulation so that, given the development of technology, a person will be able to plan his working hours. Alexander Nikolaevich is present here. Maybe, you'll comment on it?”
Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs: "When you came up with the idea in the ILO, we got a little excited. But we're quite fine with the approach you've just formulated".
They discussed the fight against poverty, affordable housing, and the quality of medicine. Although the discussion was informal, the tasks were specific.
- Was the communication in this format somewhat different from the meetings that you hold or meetings with certain circles?
Dmitry Medvedev: "Of course. A chair, no matter who he is, holds a meeting. The others report. There weren't any reports. I hope that this will result in a set of necessary decisions backed with money and regulations, of course. So, this is a good format. It's better than meetings".
Tatiana Remizova, Filipp Dubrovsky, and Yury Lebedev for Vesti.
