Meeting on current issues with deputy prime ministers

Agenda: readiness of schools and colleges for the new academic year, the Automobile Industry Development up to 2035.

Mikhail Mishustin's opening remarks

Dmitry Chernyshenko's report on the readiness of schools and colleges for the new academic year

Denis Manturov's report on the Development Strategy for the Automotive Industry

Excerpts from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin: Good morning, colleagues.

Our country will mark Knowledge Day tomorrow. A new academic year will begin in all regions. Of course, this is a major event for all children associated with new goals, plans and impressions. Some will start primary school or college. For others, this year will be graduation year, the most demanding one.

The national priority is to create conditions for our children and young people to receive a quality education, an in-demand profession, and to fully realise their talents.

The preparation of the education infrastructure for the new academic year conducted under the President's instructions within the framework of the Family and Youth and Children national projects was to be completed last week. Schoolchildren and college students in all regions should study in repaired or new buildings equipped in accordance with modern requirements.

I would like to ask Dmitry Chernyshenko to tell us about these preparations and whether everything is ready. There was a great deal to be done. Please, you have the floor.

Dmitry Chernyshenko: Mr Mishustin, colleagues,

Preparations for the new academic year have been completed as planned throughout the country. Last week, we held a meeting with the regions and school and college directors on readiness for 1 September. The regional authorities are using the information panel, which has been established at the Government Coordination Centre on your instructions, to monitor the situation.

This year, nearly 18 million children, including 1.5 million first-graders, will sit at their desks this year. It is notable that the majority of them, or more precisely about 15 million children, will study in the morning shift. Four million young people will attend colleges, which is 700,000 more than in 2020.

I will highlight the key points.

First, infrastructure. Under the Youth and Children project, 707 schools for 325,000 children and 102 college buildings for 50,000 young people have been repaired by 1 September, and 17 new schools for 14,500 children have opened in the Krasnodar Territory, the Nizhny Novgorod and Tambov regions, the republics of Dagestan and Khakassia, as well as other constituent entities. There are plans to finish the construction and renovation of more than 470 schools and colleges by the end of the year. As many as 23,000 subject-specific classrooms have been fitted out in 85 regions.

Second, personnel. Today, we have over 1.07 million school teachers and about 168,000 college teachers and vocational training instructors. We are grateful to all of them for their selfless work. I would like to say that this July the President signed an executive order on additional support measures for teachers. It is aimed at enhancing the prestige of the teaching profession. The Education Ministry has informed all regions about these innovations, and we are monitoring their implementation.

Third, secondary vocational education. As of now, 601 clusters have opened under the Professionalitet federal project, and the number should reach 981 by 2030. As many as 3,150 industrial enterprises have become their partners. I would like to remind you that the enrolment campaign is underway at colleges and vocational schools. It will last until the end of November. Over 4 million enrolment applications have been submitted, up 600,000 from last year. Over 1.3 million of them are for Professionalitet education programmes, which is 350,000 more than last year.

We continue to offer new opportunities to participants in the special military operation. As per the President's instructions, our heroes can get a free secondary vocational education for the second time starting this year.

It goes without saying that we are paying special attention to safety matters. The Education Ministry is working closely together with the Emergencies Ministry, the National Guard, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), and the regional authorities. Our education system is ready for the new academic year.

Mikhail Mishustin: The Government views ensuring access to quality education and up-to-date knowledge for children and young people across all domains, including social sciences, natural sciences and technology, as one of its key priorities. This way, our young people can have an opportunity to find their bearings in life as early as possible, discover their talents, master the requisite skills and competences for their professions, and go on to become qualified specialists the country needs.

This applies to every region of the Russian Federation, and every community, including Donbass and Novorossiya where the effort to restore infrastructure and build educational institutions is underway, all the challenges notwithstanding.

To the next item on our agenda. It deals with our key objectives in auto manufacturing as set out by the President. Producing more Russian transport vehicles and components and improving their competitiveness are the primary imperatives. Developing and mastering critical technology also matter.

Companies in this sector have been stably operating thanks to a series of decisions. Last year, their aggregate output reached 830,000 vehicles, having almost doubled compared to 2022 when the unprecedented sanctions were introduced.

There are serious plans that must be carried out moving forward based on our own competencies by making strides in stepping up research and development, as well as technology-related operations in promising areas.

To further enhance the effectiveness of its actions in this domain, the Government has approved an updated Development Strategy for the Automotive Industry, which defines the main priorities and performance indicators. This includes a several-fold increase in output across all segments.

Is that so, Mr Manturov? May I ask you to report on how you plan to arrange these efforts?

Denis Manturov: Mr Mishustin, colleagues.

Before I present the main provisions from the updated Development Strategy for the Automotive Industry, I would like to make a brief presentation on the preceding reporting period under this programme.

The state has been focusing on preserving enterprises, their teams and engineering competencies in the wake of what happened in 2022. It can be assumed that we fulfilled this objective. We revived manufacturing sites after foreign companies abandoned them, while also launching new models into serial production, which enabled us to revive automobile manufacturing in almost all relevant segments.

About 100 billion roubles were invested in refitting the revived plants, and even more funds went towards localising the manufacturing of auto parts and components.

We currently have modern production facilities capable of producing over 3 million vehicles per year. The key objective of implementing the updated strategy, therefore, is to maximise their utilisation and improve the industry's economics by consolidating production series. Specifically, for the passenger car segment, the target is at least 500,000 vehicles per platform per year. This means a single base for models with different body styles - sedans, crossovers, hatchbacks, estate cars, and other types.

At the same time, we are embracing the principle of end-to-end standardisation, whereby common components and solutions are used across various models and, where possible, by multiple manufacturers. This approach will be grounded in a sovereign technological base. Russian companies must control key developments and design documentation, expand their engineering centres, and be able to independently modify platforms and component solutions. This will result in greater technological independence.

Under the target scenario, by 2030, its level must be increased to 80 percent for passenger cars and 90 percent for light commercial vehicles, trucks, and buses. The strategy maintains a pragmatic balance in the technological landscape of the future automotive industry. Internal combustion engine vehicles, including gas-powered solutions, will continue to form the core until 2035. At the same time, the share of alternative powertrains will steadily increase. Specifically, electric vehicles and hybrids should account for a quarter of passenger car production by 2035.

We are also guiding enterprises towards the widespread implementation of driver assistance systems, autonomous driving technologies, and digital vehicle solutions.

The multi-vector development of the industry requires the update of the industrial base itself. The strategy therefore places special emphasis on further robotisation, automation, and digitalisation of enterprises. Through comprehensive modernisation, we expect to achieve an annual increase in labour productivity of approximately 10 percent.

To effectively address all of these challenges, we are fine-tuning our government support instruments - from R&D funding to demand stimulation. We are simultaneously strengthening their targeting and linking them to tangible localisation and technological outcomes. Ultimately, under our target scenario, we expect to produce approximately 2.8 million vehicles per year by 2035. We plan to increase the share of Russian products in the domestic new vehicle market to 80 percent. We are reserving the remainder for imports to maintain competition and variety of choice in individual segments.

Thus, the new policy document consolidates the transition from industry recovery to enhancing its efficiency, technological independence, and competitiveness.

Within three months, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will present a roadmap for implementing the strategy. This will allow us to strengthen applied work across all key areas of the automotive industry and monitor progress towards the objectives set for the sector by the President and the Government.

Mikhail Mishustin: I ask you to continue providing comprehensive support to enterprises in the face of external restrictions.

Our main goal is to fill the domestic market with Russian-built vehicles that meet modern standards, while remaining affordable to a wide range of our citizens. This is the instruction of the head of state, and we must do everything in our power to achieve it.