Irina Ilyina, Director of the Institute for Regional Studies and Urban Planning, National Research University Higher School of Economics:
The 42 strategic initiatives adopted at the last government meeting unambiguously revived interest in the priorities of the country’s development, highlighted a range of various problems that have to be solved. Among them are the tasks of developing the social sphere, digital transformation, construction and technological development, solving environmental and management problems. Almost 4.6 trillion rubles will be allocated for these projects over the next three years. At the same time, only 0.5 trillion rubles will be spent from the budget.
Key government initiatives are aimed at a balanced concentration of resources (material, financial and labor) to solve problems that are of paramount importance for the development of the country. Moreover, it is important to note that the financing of goals is clearly linked to the main parameters of the federal budget. The effect of increasing returns from the implementation of these initiatives can lead to the fact that even a small start-up advantage in a certain area in the future will become a significant stimulus for development.
Among other things, the initiatives are aimed at the development of the so-called. “technological corridors” that will change the entire industrial system in the future: the production of new materials and new energy sources, electric vehicles and hydrogen cars, logistics corridors and unmanned delivery of goods. It is very important that government initiatives cover all the most important areas of the technological revolution. For example, the creation of programmable materials, or materials with controlled properties. It is important to note the interconnection in technological priorities: from energy to agriculture, from a private home to a mobile city, from Internet access to training for IT. And most importantly, technologies are linked into a single complex, mutually support and complement each other, forming a “technology platform”. Hopefully, technological breakthroughs will lead in the very near future to a serious increase in labor productivity in our country.
But the achievement of technological and economic goals must be supported by the development of professionalism and an increase in the level of knowledge of people. Initiatives (eg Vocationality, Advanced Schools of Engineering, University Technology Entrepreneurship Platform) aim to create a unified intellectual platform through training. Attention is paid to the positive positioning of Russia in the world in the educational and cultural context.
The government’s initiatives cover all spheres of human activity, the “social sphere” plays an important role: health security, medical rehabilitation, the emergence of services in the social sphere demanded by citizens. Attention is paid to the “greening” of all processes, for example, rational production and distribution of resources, environmental friendliness of transport, synthesized spatial planning.
It seems that the program of “initiatives” is capable of accelerating the development of the country along all the main “fronts”, which since July last year have been the national goals for the state approved by the presidential decree.
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