Tribune’s guest is the he deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Valery Vasiliev
-I know that you recently returned from Rostov-on-Don. A joint meeting was held there of several committees of the Federation Council with the Chairman of the Federation Council. This meeting concerned the issues of road construction in Russia. What are the main problems that were identified in this area?
- In fact, we pay special attention to the road sector in the Federation Council. Suffice it to say, that at the spring session we held a governmental hour devoted to this issue. The Economic Policy Committee held a large round table, which was also dedicated to this subject. Well, maybe at the end of the spring session we will have a visiting session of the two committees – the Committee on the Budget and the Economic Policy Committee, which are also dedicated to the problems of this issue. There are a lot of questions about the road sector, you probably know this, and no worse than the senators. There are 1.5 million kilometers of roads in the Russian Federation. By the way, we are in 5th place for this indicator, but only 37% of the regional roads meet the existing standards. Well, actually the financial situation in the region, is not brilliant. About 14% are ensured of regions for road work.
-Well, is there any positive direction, positive signs in the construction of roads? Is it somewhat better in some regions? You said 14%, 14% is probably some kind of an average figure, isn’t it?
- Of course, this is called the average temperature in the hospital. Of course, some regions feel better, some worse. Certainly, probably, Moscow stands out from the crowd, but the problem with the financing is probably the main problem. Indeed, we need to seek new sources of revenue for our road funds. Although surely it should be noted that over the past four years, the filling of road funds has doubled. The second question is that for today it is not sufficient. And there are very serious problems with the quality. I think, in fact, all those who in one way or another, with regards to our roads, motorists, I think they note that the quality of our roads certainly leaves much to be desired.
-And is there interest from private investors in road construction? Or is it the sole prerogative of our state, our say-so of the regional and federal budgets?
- I think there is. We need to create the relevant rules, the rules of the game. Then a private investor would be interested. And in today's environment, I believe that private investors are interested in working in the road sector. The second question, I have to say, as I have already said, is those existing problems that we have today, but first and foremost it is certainly the issue of financing, which should be addressed.
-Let's talk about the results of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. It was held not so long ago, just a couple of weeks ago. During the preparation period there was a lot of talk, well, there were rumors that no one would come, that the economic sanctions imposed by the EU countries, the US and several other countries would affect economic cooperation, so there would not be any large-scale transactions, and some businessmen of the second rank would come, if came. Were these fears justified? How disastrous were the sanctions for such a large-scale event?
- You know, I will probably express my personal point of view, the devastating influence of the sanctions for this event, I did not feel. I have been attending the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg for four years, you know, and during this time I saw a lot of guests at the Forum. Yes, actually, the statistics speak about it. Approximately 10 thousand visitors. Moreover, many of our visitors came not only with curiosity to listen, to participate, to debate at the forum, but they were absolutely genuinely interested in our business. And this is true. As I recall the figures, 200 contracts, worth about 300 billion rubles, have been concluded. Therefore, I would not say that the sanctions have affected the holding of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. As always, the discussion was very interesting, there were various discussion panels. I can even express regret that often those discussions that were interesting to me were carried out at the same time. Just physically it was not possible to get to one section, the second, the third. The Forum, it seems to me, as always, was of a top level, there were a lot of interesting discussions on today’s topics, on economic issues. What we need to do, how to organize economic policies for the future, it was certainly interesting. I think that the foreign guests who represented foreign business participated in these discussions with interest.
-Were there among the foreign guests representatives of those, say, states which have introduced sanctions against us?
-Representatives of 120 countries attended the forum. Of course, there were representatives of businesses from the countries that had imposed sanctions. This rhetoric is absolutely clear that no one was happy with the sanctions, it is clear that they are not productive, to say at least. So business wants to work and not to participate in sanctions.
-I am sure that the issue of the growth of productivity was discussed at the forum, I know that you are an expert on this issue. Tell me, what is needed in our country to increase productivity step by step? How to increase domestic production?
- It seems to me that there are several important components: technology and re-investment. Only in this manner, perhaps, can we raise productivity. We can see a few examples. Take our Ivanovo textile region. All our textile enterprises have imported equipment, unfortunately. I think we just need to pay more attention so our equipment is manufactured in our country, so that we have the new technology.
We can also look at the agricultural sector: a lot of equipment, too many harvesters (we recently carried out a large round-table discussion on winemaking and viticulture), virtually all of the machines that work in the vineyard, are not manufactured here.
Some numbers are really discouraging: 92% of table grapes are imported from abroad. And there are a lot of similar figures. Virtually all of the machines that work in the vineyard, are not manufactured here. This is also a very important factor. Therefore, it seems to me, we need to begin to solve these problems with this formula, then, of course, this will increase productivity.
Absolutely all our regions, such as Krasnodar, the Rostov region, Stavropol Territory, the Caucasus, Crimea have great conditions, great climates, people who are willing, and more than that, they want to work. The issue of wine is also a very important component, which we recently examined. I would like to say that the turnover of the wine industry in Italy is 15 billion euros.15 billion is a colossal figure. According to today's exchange rate it is almost 1 trillion rubles. What prevents us, in fact, from repeating the success of Italy? We have exactly the same climatic conditions, we have everything for this. We need very serious support from the state, primarily economic, secondarily legislative. The number of vineyards today is so small – once again, I will name a figure, a figure is always such a thing which puts everything in its place – 90 thousand hectares of vineyards. In Romania alone there are 180 thousand hectares of vineyards, I'm not talking about the leaders, such as Spain, France, Italy, where there 800-900, and 1 million hectares of vineyards.
I think that when we talk about new points of growth of our economy, I think these are the new points that with certain attention can bring significant results in 5,7,10 years.
-So, this is the long-term money that is so often spoken about in all economic areas. Out businessman is chasing a "fast" ruble, which usually quickly ends.
- Unfortunately, this is long-term money, agriculture, indeed, taking into account grapes, wine, we plant grapes and the wine we get only after 5-7 years.
-What do you think, in particular for wine production, wine-related products, should these be large enterprises, or could there be small business holders? Even on the example of those same foreign countries? Do private small businesses or large enterprises have a bigger percentage?
-In general they have private and we also have private. The second issue is small and not small forms. In my opinion, any forms have a right to exist, if they are successful. According to the last visit to the Southern District, where we worked in the context of the round table on wine-making. We visited a number of enterprises. They were so-called small ones, as well as the very large enterprise Phanagoria. It is very successful: 25 million bottles of very good quality wine, 1 billion 200 in taxes at all levels. This is a very serious and very successful enterprise, so it seems to me, forms can be small.
- We generally discussed small business, but nonetheless we note that in fact we don’t have it a lot. Maybe something is lacking in Russia for the development of this segment? Do we need new laws?
-Probably we need new laws and new legislative support but, in this sense, I think we need to be a bit careful. I'll tell now what the matter is. The opinion was expressed about ten years ago at the forum in St. Petersburg: there were about five thousand legislative, governmental acts a year. There were more than 20 thousand in 2014. During one of the panel discussions the audience was offered to choose the factors that slow down the growth of our economy today. There were 10 factors: corruption, oil prices, overregulation of our economy and others. This is a really important story, so we need to fight, as today the following factor is in the first place: overregulation of our economy. It shows that, in terms of our legislation, we also need to be very careful, because often our small and medium-sized business becomes difficult to control. Often the laws do not support, but prevent them from working.
-What do you think, is it worth increasing import substitution in order to give up everything for the benefit of our national production?
-Of course, it is not necessary. But it seems to me that nobody asks this question today. As for the issue of food security, of course, we can all grow agriculture in our country. But I am absolutely sure that you need to maintain and support our agriculture very seriously. I have said this is an additional point of growth of our economy. But there are questions we need to solve: questions of technology and equipment. These are very important questions, and I think we should not postpone them in any case.
-You represent the Ivanovo Region in the Federation Council. What sights would you recommend? Where would you invite us?
- It seems to me that the Ivanovo Region is the center of Russia. У нас есть свои «жемчужины»he Ivanovo region is a very interesting and blessed land. We have our own peculiarities like the Palekh, the Kholui. They are the art of lacquer miniature, which are known all over the world. I hope you know that the great River Volga bends around the Ivanovo Region, almost half of the Ivanovo region borders this river. There are wonderful Russian cities on the Volga: Puchezh, Yurievets, Kineshma, and certainly our city of Ples, which in recent years has become extremely popular. It's very small, but it has a pretty decent hotel fund. I want to say that if you haven’t booked a hotel beforehand during our holidays, especially in the winter vacations, you will not manage to have a rest in this small Russian city. Indeed, the places are very beautiful and very attractive, so I think we have sights worth seeing in the Ivanovo Region.
- Does this mean that the travel component of the Ivanovo Region and the tourist segment is gradually developing at a high level in order to receive our tourists?
- It is developing, and I need to say that we still have a lot of things to do. First of all, infrastructure, and road infrastructure. Strictly speaking, we began our conversation with this topic because it is very important for our people, our tourists in cars, so they could comfortably visit cities
-The Ivanovo Region is an integral part of the classical 'Golden Ring' of Russia. For example, if I want to travel to Ples by car today will it be comfortable in respect of quality of roads?
- Of course. You can travel to our place, the road is very good, comfortable, with camping. You can stop and have a meal. We have all the necessary conditions.
