Russia's economy

Growth of investment in the Russian economy in 2020 should reach 6-7%, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, TASS reports.

"The second direction is improving business climate and quality of national jurisdiction, so that no one runs into other jurisdictions, abroad, so that everything is reliable and works like a clock. Investment growth in 2020 should reach 6-7%," he said.

Putin noted that "achieving this level will be one of the key criteria for evaluating the government’s work".

National welfare

Vladimir Putin is convinced that Russia will be able to restore natural increase in population in 2023-2024:

"Russia has now entered a very difficult demographic period. The birth rate is decreasing… But this does not mean that we should accept this situation. In 2023-2024 we will be able to achieve the restoration of national population growth," Putin said.

"We must move only forward, accelerating the pace of that movement all the time," the president said.

According to Putin, the National Priority Projects, which are being implemented nationwide, are strategic, but it is necessary to work on them even now.

We are pressed for time, I have said that on numerous occasions, and you are perfectly aware of that," the head of state stressed. "We cannot waste it on more coordination."

"It’s absolutely unacceptable to deviate from the targets," he added. "These tasks are complicated, but we cannot ‘lower the bar’ of specific objectives."

According to Putin, these tasks "correspond to the scale and speed of changes in the world."

National projects

Russians should feel improvements in their life according to results of national projects implementation this year already, Vladimir Putin emphasized.

"We should feel real changes in assessments by citizens already in coming future, in this year. We will make first summaries of work under national projects and arrive at relevant conclusions regarding quality and results of work for all levels of executive authorities early next year," Putin said.

Russian authorities now have an opportunity "to allocate and focus financial resources that are enormous for our country on development goals" at present, the president stated.

"Nobody donated them to us; we have not borrowed them. These funds were earned by millions of our citizens, by the whole country. They should be disposed so that to multiply the wealth of Russia and welfare of Russian families," the head of state said.

The Russian leader proposed to introduce a mechanism of social contracts to fight poverty in Russia:

"Social contracts can become a working mechanism for such support [for the poor]," he stressed.

Healthcare

The electronic system in the healthcare sector should be tuned up in three years, Vladimir Putin stressed.

"Information support of healthcare should work for greater accessibility of medical aid. There is a need to establish electronic interaction among medical institutions, drugstores, doctors and patients within three years," Putin noted.

Medical and social expert institutions must be included into the overall digital network also, the head of state said. "Aged and disabled individuals and families with children should be relieved thereby from queues and gathering of sometimes senseless references," Putin added.

Medical care should be available in all regions of the country by the end of 2020, the president stated.

"In remote settlements, even getting an appointment with a medical worker is problematic. <…> By the end of 2020, medical care should be available in all, and I want to emphasize that, in all inhabited communities throughout Russia without exception and for all citizens," he said.

According to the head of state, to do that it is necessary to build and modernize more than 1,500 outpatient clinics in Russia’s regions. "As many as 1,590 outpatient clinics and primary healthcare facilities are to be built and modernized in 2019 and 2020 alone," Putin said.

Microfinance market

The Russian leader has ordered the Central Bank and law enforcement agencies to normalize the country’s microfinance market as soon as possible.

"I request the Bank of Russia and law enforcement agencies normalize the microfinance market as soon as possible," Putin ordered.

The head of state highlighted the need to "protect the people from fraud and extortion attempts made by unscrupulous creditors."

The State of the Nation Address

This practice was introduced by President Boris Yeltsin, who first addressed the parliament on February 24, 1994. All in all, he delivered six addresses to the Federal Assembly. President Putin addressed the Federal Assembly 14 times, while Dmitry Medvedev delivered four addresses as President.

In the State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, the president assesses the state of affairs throughout the country and sets the main trajectories for domestic and foreign policy. It is not only the right, but also the duty of the head of state recorded in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.