The Governor reported that the budget was growing and the import substitution programme was underway. Out of 130 projects, 24 were implemented in 2022, and about 57 will be implemented during the next period.
Since the demand for labour, especially programmers, CNC operators, welders and other blue-collar jobs is high, the regional authorities are focusing on expanding college training and they sign contracts with employers so that the students have mentors and can see what the future holds for them.
With regard to primary health care, Mr Vorobyov said that, on the President’s instruction, the focus is on paediatricians. A programme to that effect includes advanced training and using best practices from other regions.
According to the Governor, the leadership is to ensure stability and to fulfil the goals of prime importance for the region. Population growth means there is a need to create more new jobs and upgrade transport, in particular, to expand the Moscow transport hub.
Vladimir Putin noted that backlog issues, such as co-investors in residential construction projects who were subsequently cheated out of their property, should be addressed as well. The Governor updated the President on the latest developments.
The President noted massive efforts to close down solid waste landfills in the Moscow Region and stressed the importance of reclaiming these areas.
Andrei Vorobyov said 39 landfills had been closed down, of which 17 have been reclaimed under the federal programme making them environmentally clean territories that can be used for further development. At least, they no longer cause concern. Following completion of the work at the most worrying sites in Serpukhov and Volokolamsk where major reclamation work will be conducted in 2023–2024, there will be no more sites giving rise to concern. The Governor noted that the region led the efforts to create the waste processing industry.
In addition, Andrei Vorobyov noted that the Moscow Region was also a leader in the social gas infrastructure building project under which 310,000 consumers now have gas supplied to their homes at token prices. This programme was completed in 2022.