State Council Presidium meeting on developing infrastructure for life

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

We will discuss the status of implementation of the Infrastructure for Life national project today. The issue is about ensuring continued development and improvement of the vast swaths of land in our country, creating a modern, comfortable, safe and friendly environment in all regions and municipalities, solving housing issues, and creating jobs, as well as ensuring wide availability of transport and social services, and high-quality and safe roads.

Supporting core population centres should contribute to bringing comprehensive solution to these issues. Two thirds of our people live in such centres. Such core centres - 2,160 in all - in conjunction with major metropolitan areas will reinforce Russia's economic and infrastructural framework and thus ensure a more harmonious and sustainable nationwide settlement model.

The development of core population centres will rely, among other things, on master plans which should clearly show what a particular city, a district centre or a village will look like six to12 years from now, describe upcoming changes in the socioeconomic sphere, and list the infrastructure projects to be implemented.

The constituent entities have already begun drawing up master plans. However, this document does not yet have a clear legal status. Work on the draft law in question is underway, but please do not delay it. Also, it is important to clearly show interrelations between master plans and general and comprehensive plans for developing territories.

At this point, we risk creating a pile-up of duplicate and contradictory documents, which is clearly not a good thing. I would like to hear your thoughts about ways to deal with what we have on our hands now.

To be continued.