Murtaza Rakhimov: “It is not the time to relax now”

President RB Murtaza Rakhimov answered several actual questions concerning economic and political life in the Republic in his interview to the news-agency “REGNUM”. President RB has dwelt upon the problems of the way of out of the crisis in details and told about his methods of struggle with its unfavorable after-effects. The text of the interview is given below (in short): IA “REGNUM”: M-r Rakhimov, it would be quite naturally to devote the larger part of our conversation to the problems, arising in connections with the global economic crisis. This theme is quite stirring for many people. The first question is how do you, M-r Rakhimov, estimate the efficiency of Bashkir Government’s activity within the crisis period? - I think it is too early to give any assessments. The main thing now is to concentrate ourselves on operative solution of the problems, arising in economics. This situation is able to cause many difficulties and we have to undertake resolute steps. We can’t do without flexible management system, responding to all alarm signals. IA “REGNUM”: Is the reorganization of several ministries in Bashkortostan in middle of March connected with that? -Yes, we need systematic and well-coordinated work of all power branches and competent position of heads of our ministries, departments and enterprises as well. The role of a competent and reliable leader increases many times. Time demands the authority structure should become more compact and less bulky, more operative and thus having the one single center for making solutions. Reorganizations of our ministries and departments are done exactly for that. I think we have to search for more optimal and more workable constructions, further reorganizing some ministries. IA “REGNUM: In what way in your opinion the crisis can affect the economics of the region, headed by you? -We’ve managed to create certain margin of safety for the last years and this margin helps us to control the situation now. Republic Government elaborated the emergency measures but many other solutions have to be undertaken soon. But I think we are facing the period of a long-term, perhaps several years’ long way out of the crisis to the former level of stable economic growth. Speaking about the beginning of the crisis and its first strikes I can definitely say it failed to crash social-economic development of Bashkortostan. The plans of2008 are fulfilled and the results of Republic’s progress, demonstrating positive tendencies in 2008 prove that. Our gross regional product has exceeded 800 billion rubles. Industrial production has grown up by 9,2%. By this showing Bashkortostan has better dynamics than in Russia in a whole during four years. The growth in agriculture has made 3%. We’ve collected the record harvest – more than 5 million tons of grain. The volume of construction works has raised by 4,4%. 27,9 thousand flats with total area 2,352 million square meters have been built. This is the largest volume for 19 years and we are on the first place in Volga federal district by this showing. The retail trade turnover has grown up by 19,1%. The volume of external trade turnover makes up more than 9 billion USD – by 19,7% more than in 2007. Nonetheless the achieved results don’t give us the grounds for complacency. President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev also says that “It’s not time to relax now”. IA “REGNUM”: What measures will be undertaken in Bashkiria to overcome the crisis after-effects? -As the President RB I set the task before Government RB and heads of ministries and departments to provide stability of our economics and to fulfill our social obligations, forming a new model of social-economic development. I think that Bashkortostan’s economics turn to the energy-saving way is one of the key challenges in the nearest future. Housing building is becoming the key sector of economics in the crisis period. It is able to become the locomotive of the overall growth, i.e. developing the adjacent branches. We’ll try to preserve the pre-crisis rates of growth in this sphere, raising dwelling accessibility. In agriculture we intend to support local producers, giving them free way to Republican trade networks. The main task of budget policy is to strengthen the measures to preserve well-balanced budget system RB. The main thing now is to keep the level of population social support at the same level. We mustn’t struggle with the crisis at the expense of decrease of population living standards. IA “REGNUM”: M-r Rakhimov, you’ve taken the floor with the regular 15th Message to deputies of the Republican parliament. What is the principal difference of this document from the previous messages? - The matter is that every Message was approved in concrete conditions, thus reflecting the specific features of that time, the peculiarities of strategy and tactics of those solutions. This year is not the exception because the main peculiarity of the crisis is the absence of any global solutions how to find the way out. This is not just the problem N1 for Russia and every Russian region but serious challenge for the authority, real test of the authority efficiency. But all messages have one common feature and this feature is social orientation. Our goal is improvement of people’s living standards and this is the only direction in our activity.