Interfax: Putin blasts proposals for improving business conditions as ‘ministerial red tape’

NOVO-OGARYOVO. Dec 4 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin criticized the slow pace at which planned improvements to business conditions in Russia are being implemented.

“Unfortunately, one-third of the measures in the approved road map have not been implemented on time. A whole host of proposals from business are stuck undergoing inter-ministerial coordination. Occasionally, the ministries propose limiting themselves to purely cosmetic measures,” Putin said at a meeting of the Economic Council.

The biggest problems now are in construction and there has been practically no movement in that area, he said.

“Transparent mechanisms for allocating land for construction projects have not taken shape. A comprehensive list of the documents needed for construction has yet to be approved. Often, proposals from entrepreneurs pass through a working group, are approved, and then, in the depths of the ministries, are altered beyond recognition,” Putin said.

As a result, in terms of administrative procedures in the construction area, Russia is located “at the tail end of world ratings.”

In the end, the nation must do without millions of square meters of housing and business spends months and years securing construction permits.

At the same time, Putin noted the serious progress made in Moscow and Sverdlovsk region in streamlining bureaucratic procedures and gave the instruction to expand the best practices nationwide, in order to eliminate obstacles to builders.

“I ask the new Construction [Housing and Utilities] Ministry, other ministries, State Duma deputies, to approve all necessary measures, in the first half of 2014; and the business community to ensure reliable control over their implementation,” Putin said.

Putin ruled out postponing implementation of the road map.

“We agreed that all the approved road maps must be implemented over the course of the next two years. No postponements or reschedulings will be allowed. This means not simply approving laws, but achieving qualitative application at the federal and regional level,” he said.