Agenda: renewing the programme to support the students who are no longer able to continue their studies at universities in unfriendly countries; supporting pharmaceutical companies which produce medicines under the import substitution effort; and expanding the industrial mortgage programme.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues,
During the Government Report to the State Duma, I spoke in detail about the fact that our students who study abroad ran into problems because they are from Russia. Many of them were expelled.
Last year, we provided such undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to receive credits for the subjects that they had successfully completed in order for them to continue studies at a domestic university of their choice and, most importantly, free of charge, with about 2,500 students taking advantage of this opportunity.
We are renewing this programme for this year.
Students from new Russian regions will also have the chance to enter universities under simplified rules if the universities where they studied are located in an unfriendly country. Their victories at school academic Olympiads will be credited to them as well.
We will continue to help students who want to study and engage in scientific research in our country. They can access a network of advanced engineering schools, and mega-science sites are being built for them. Young scientists are eligible for housing certificates and many other support measures.
On to the next issue. On behalf of the President, the Government will provide additional support to pharmaceutical manufacturers who will be eligible for state subsidies to develop and register domestic medications, the analogues of which are currently covered by foreign patents. The issue is about the most popular and strategically important medicines.
The amount of financing for these innovative projects will range from 50 million to 100 million roubles. Only the companies with sufficient experience and competence in this area will be eligible to obtain it. The funds will be used to purchase equipment and pay salaries to employees who are directly involved in the medication substitution programme.
This solution will help them quickly establish their own production after a foreign patent expires. This is particularly important amid ongoing external pressure.
There’s more I would like to share with you. During a recent working trip to the Ryazan Region, I had a meeting with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry where we discussed the importance of expanding the industrial mortgage mechanism. The mechanism was launched at the President’s initiative last year to help organisations that were looking to buy production premises.
Now, the real sector companies can get a low-cost loan for the building, upgrading or renovating factory premises. This resolution has been signed.
Given the high demand for this measure, the planned volume of subsidies for this year stands at 1.3 billion roubles. Minister of Industry and Trade and Deputy Prime Minister Manturov and I have reached an agreement on that. If needed, we will make more funds available.
We hope the programme will help enterprises boost the efficiency of spending for these purposes and encourage them to launch new projects.
Source – The Russian Government: http://government.ru/en/news/48192/