The Public Chamber has prepared a set of measures to develop the country’s economic and social system in the next 12 years and has urged all active layers of society to join the work. Active State Duma deputies have established a special commission for this purpose
Following political parties, members of the Public Chamber have also joined the discussion about a development strategy for Russian to 2020. On Wednesday, hearings were held on the problems of reforming Russia’s economic and social system in the Public Chamber, under the aegis of four of its committees. “It is naive to think that the big boss is currently developing for us a step-by-step development plan, which we will follow,” stressed the head of the Public Chamber Commission on Economic Policy and Business Support and the editor-in-chief of Expert magazine, Valery Fadeev. Putin, in his view, only identified the outline of a “big project”; now, all active layers of society should be involved in the development of its individual parts. That means, of course, its implementation.
But not everyone is happy with all the individual details. Positive changes are certainly outlined in the country’s economic and social policies, but many of them are haphazard and chaotic. Thus, the head of the Chamber’s Committee on Work Relations and Pension Allowances, Oleg Neterbsky, pointed out that despite remarkable economic growth, social tension persists: “Many people think that the results of economic activity are distributed unfairly.” Netrebsky believes that the state should pay more attention to the development of the pension system. However, carrying out a new pension reform is not entirely necessary; it is enough “to give substance” to the reform of 2000. “The system for collecting the single social tax must be studied in more detail, at the moment the SST has a very philosophical character.”
Developing a competitive environment and increasing the role of small and medium-sized businesses have been referred to among the main challenges facing the developers of an economic strategy to 2020.
Expert Media Holding’s chief editor, Tatyana Gurova, in turn, drew attention to the fact that the development of an independent, diversified banking system is extremely important. We have a big country and many small businesses, and these businesses should have equal partners - small private banks that are now virtually non-existent in Russia. They are either in the process of being bought or have already been bought by larger players.
The speakers did not leave out developing innovations, noting that the key point is to reduce taxes for high-tech industries.
The main result of the hearings, as the public persons themselves underlined, was the adoption of a document with the principle wishes of the Chamber. For the time being, it has only a theoretical character, but PC members are confident that all the interested parties - policy makers, MPs, and business representatives – will join the drafting of it in the near future.
Vera Kholmogorova
http://eng.expert.ru
