Д.Медведев.Ответы на вопросы.05.06.08.Part 2

Responses to Questions from German Political, Parliamentary and Civic Leaders.Part 2
June 5, 2008
Berlin

Ответы на вопросы представителей политических, парламентских и общественных кругов Германии.
5 июня 2008 года
Берлин

QUESTION: I am the scientific and education coordinator for the Petersburg Dialogue forum and deputy secretary general of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Mr President, when Mr Steinmeier [German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier] visited Moscow you discussed the idea of partnership in modernization work, especially in the area of healthcare. In a speech at the Russian Federation Government Academy of the National Economy before you became President, you spoke about demographic development and mentioned this idea of partnership. Today you have spoken once again about the importance of laws. My question is, can we expect your support to draw up a concrete cooperation concept, including on exchanges, by the time of Petersburg Dialogue forum in the autumn this year (a specific date has not been named yet) so that we can we achieve rapid and concrete results?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Thank you. This is a very good subject. Some time back I did indeed start working on a demographic project for our country. This is a completely unique and absolutely essential project for us, and I think for you too. Many of the challenges European civilisation is confronting today are one and the same for all of us. The population decline that for a number of objective reasons is taking place in our country is also a problem facing other countries, other European countries. Right from the outset we needed to put in place a system of incentives for the demographic situation to change, motivating people so that they will want to start families and have children.

This is a very complex matter. We realise that money does not always produce results, especially in cases when living standards are already quite high. Living standards in Russia are not yet as high as in Germany. We have therefore decided to make use of a number of different ideas to encourage families to have more children and have developed in particular the idea of the maternity capital.

The maternity capital is a grant that a woman receives if she gives birth to a second or subsequent child. By Russian standards this grant represents a decent sum of money 8,000-8,500 euros. It can be spent on education, be put towards ones pension or for housing.

Of course this does not solve all the problems we face, but I am talking about this because these are issues we need to address. In this area you already have valuable experience of implementing a number of demographic programmes.

There are a number of technological areas in which we are already working together, on the national project to modernise our countrys healthcare sector, for example. We have decided to set up 15 completely new high-technology medical centres in our country. This is a very important step for Russia. The module units used to make up these high-tech centres will come primarily from German companies. We chose German companies because of the good quality standards and competitive prices they offer. This also represents direct development of our relations and new opportunities for working together in areas such as demography. We also have a number of other projects. My colleague, Mr Steinmeier, and I have indeed discussed these matters on a number of occasions. I think that the conditions and the grounds are all in place for moving ahead with this project, including through the Petersburg Dialogue forum, which, as you rightly noted, will take place this autumn, and through the intergovernmental consultations that will take place. We agreed today that these consultations will take place in late September-early October.

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