Rustem Khamitov has discussed the problems of quality of life with citizens of Oktyabrsky

The quality of life has become the main theme at the meeting of the President RB Rustem Khamitov with citizens of the town of Oktyabrsky, held on November 16.

“First of all I need such meetings” - he said - “I needs such gatherings as the President of the Republic and as the man, who has to feel the pulse of our villages and towns all the time. You all know that the principle of work with people is one of the key ones, if not the most important, for me and I always say that the authority, working separately from population, is a fiction”.

The President of Bashkortostan acquainted the comers with the social-economic situation in the region and told them about his vision for solution of today's problems.

“We clearly understand that the dynamics, observed in the Republic five-seven years ago, is not enough today, we need other speeds and other movement. If we continue standing idle and doing nothing, we will further remain a middling region among others, i.e. middle positions on production volumes, on budget incomes, wages etc. We are a powerful region and have to stay among the leaders. I have to say that quality of life is the criterion of work for any government and this criterion includes many showings: life time, the availability of material resources, house-building and many others. Russian regions are estimated by 450 showings . The Ministry for economic development of Russia collects great number of data and with the help of its formulas determines successful and destructive regions. The quality of life is the main thing and all other showings are secondary and in accordance with this criterion we – Republic of Bashkortostan and the country as a whole – are still found not far from the lowest standards. We still have many old half-dilapidated houses, facing the shortage of big social programs and low wages. All these problems disturb our society and the authority has to answer these challenges. The authority has to work for improvement of the quality of life and this is practically the only criterion of its activity, at least for the regional authority, because the federal one has its own additional obligations – defense, space, frontiers etc, but we here are responsible for the quality of life”.

The President RB has mentioned that today the opportunities in the regions aren't as high as they would like them to be.

“The matter is that the federal budget takes more than a half of the resources, collected as taxes on the regional territories and this situation is “frozen” since the beginning of 2000s, when the country was just being formed. That time we really needed centralization. But now the time has come when the federal center has to share its competences with the regions. This situation with centralization has to be revised because we, as the heads of the regions, have no mechanisms for solution of our internal problems. We can't repair our yards and roads without federal subsidies and this situation is wrong because now super-centralization hampers development of Russian economics”.

“Talking about the quality of life we have to understand that first of all this is the work of our municipalities, i.e. the lower branch of power. But the municipalities must have resources for that and it means that the major part of the collected resources should stay there. It is very difficult to break the psychology of those financiers, which form the budgets. From on side it is easier to collect all taxes first and after that to start distributing the means downside but this situation has no future. The civilized world, which standards we are striving for, lives by other parameters – strong municipal authority – strong regional authority and, correspondingly, strong central or federal authority”.

Rustem Khamitov has mentioned that in 2013 the Republic intends to turn to such budget financing that the major part of the collected taxes should be left on the municipal level.

“At present time we negotiate the federal center that the lion's share of the taxes we collect has to be left here, in the Republic” - the President RB said and expressed the opinion that the state should come out as the defender of interests of ordinary people, supplying them with jobs, good salaries and good living conditions.